Peace Institute Annual Report 2003
Peace Institute Metelkova ulica 6 SI - 1000 Ljubljana
Phone: +386 1 234 77 20 Fax: +386 1 234 77 22 Email: [email protected] www.mirovni-institut.si
Published: Ljubljana, March 2004
2 Contents:
CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL STUDIES...... 5 Contemporary Citizenship: Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion (Slovenia and the transition states of Central and Eastern Europe)...... 6 Nation-State and Xenophobia ...... 11 Inclusion of Immigrants into New Societies Utilizing the Ethics of Care. Possibilities of Transition from the Fortress Europe to an Open Europe...... 14 Research on Unaccompanied Minors – Report for Slovenia ...... 18 Intolerance Monitor...... 21 Workers' Punk University ...... 24 Conflict Resolution in the Community (REKOS) ...... 30 The Peace Institute Forum...... 33
CENTER FOR CIVIL SOCIETY...... 36 Metelkova Information Network...... 40 Politike Edition...... 43 Monitoring Group of Immigrants' and Aliens' Legislation...... 47 Police and Human Rights...... 51 Publications on Roma Rights...... 54
CENTER FOR CULTURAL POLICY...... 57 Reading Cultures in the Newly Established Publishing Conditions: empirical findings, analysis of the situation and recommendations for the development of Slovene publishing policies...... 59 Cultural Education...... 62
CENTER FOR GENDER AND POLITICS...... 65 Policy Frames and Implementation Problems – the Case of Gender Mainstreaming .. 66 Sociological Conceptual Analysis of Family Policies in Slovenia from the Perspective of Social Change – postdoctoral project...... 69 Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia and Proposals for Policy in the Field - CRP project...... 72
3 Migrations and Human Trafficking...... 76 Sexual Citizenship ...... 79
EAST EAST COOPERATION CENTER ...... 81 The Use of the Ethics of Care Perspective in Social Policy...... 82 The First Regional Seminar on Human Rights Education for Teachers and Activists from SE Europe ...... 85 Public Policy Round Table Discussion and Workshop (Public Policy and Think Tanks) 88 Participation Opportunities: Perspectives for Inclusion of Marginalized Groups...... 91 Contemporary Citizenship. The Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion II (Is There a Chance for a Post-national Citizenship?) ...... 94
CENTER FOR MEDIA POLICY ...... 97 Media Watch...... 98 Media Ownership...... 104 Minority Media in Slovenia ...... 108 Media Policy...... 112 Self-regulation in the Media ...... 116 Public Radio and Television...... 119 Journalism Evenings ...... 121 International Collaboration in the Media Field...... 125 The Peace Institute Library...... 129
SPECIAL PROGRAMS...... 131 The Peace Institute Fellowship Program 2003...... 132
4 CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL STUDIES
5 Contemporary Citizenship: Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion (Slovenia and the transition states of Central and Eastern Europe)
Head of Project
Vlasta Jalušič, PhD [email protected]
Project Team
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, PhD , Milica G. Antić, PhD, Mojca Pajnik, M.A., Roman Kuhar, M.A., Mojca Sušnik
Aims and Goals
The aim of the project is: 1) to place the contemporary term and concept of citizenship in the context of transition societies of Central and Eastern Europe; 2) to ascertain its significance for political equality, participation and social cohesion; 3) to study certain cases of concepts and practices of citizenship in the states of democratic transition, particularly Slovenia, and compare them to each other; 4) to lay the foundation for change and monitoring of the politics of exclusion in chosen areas. Project duration: July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2004.
Content
In the period between the 18th and the 30th month of the project, we worked particularly towards the first and the third of the goals mentioned above. We analyzed the policies and mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, and conducted and published the following case studies on individual public policies and discourses: a study on the policies of exclusion during the formation of Slovene statehood, a study on those exlcuded from the process of granting of Slovene citizenships, a study on the discourse on homosexuality in Slovene media, a study on parliamentary discussions of female quotas in politics. We studied public discussions and legislation, conducted interviews, and analyzed selected public
6 debates, strategic documents and normative guidelines on the national – as well as EU – laws and political practices of greater significance for the status of members of various mentioned groups in Slovenia. This included an analysis of the policies of inclusion in the fields of employment, social security, culture, anti-discrimination legislation and other measures taken by Slovene executive and legislative authorities to insure the inclusion of excluded social groups into the broader society. We compared the situation in the field of such policies in Slovenia to the ones in selected transition, and other, states (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Estonia, Rumania, Israel and the Netherlands). To this end, we organized the second international conference on citizenship: Contemporary Citizenship: The Politics of Exclusion II. At the conference we closely examined the issues of post-national citizenship, EU citizenship and other project-related topics.
Methods
During the fourth and the fifth stage of the project we applied secondary analysis and the comparative method, the analysis of strategic documents and the analysis of discoursive frameworks of policies. We obtained individual case studies from experts in the aforementioned selected states. The Peace Instutute fellowship recipients were included in the project.
Events and Activities
Debates on the issue of the »erased« during the »Week of the erased« in February of 2003. A meeting with the European Commissioner for Human Rights in May of 2003. International scientific conference: »Contemporary citizenship: the politics of inclusion and exclusion II. Is there a chance for post-national citizenship?«, Dec 4– Dec 6, 2003.
Results
We published portions of our research in the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report and the Media Watch journal. Substantial portions were published in foreign
7 publications, magazines, books, on our web site, and in the popular press. In 2003, two of the junior researchers in our research group (Mojca Pajnik and Roman Kuhar) begun or continued their doctoral work in the context of the project.
Bibliographic results: JALUŠIČ, Vlasta. Blickwinkel und Irritationen : zur aktuellen Bedeutung von Bürgerrechte in den ostmitteleuropäischen Staaten. Fem. Stud., May 2003, , 1, 82- 89.
Die 1989 und danach : was ist der Sinn der Politik?. V: Totalitäre Herrschaft und republikanische Demokratie : fünfzig Jahre The Origins of Totalitarianism von Hannah Arendt, (Hannah-Arendt-Studien : Schriftenreihe des Hannah Arendt- Zentrums der Carl von Ossietzky-Universität Oldenburg, Bd. 1). Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2003, 189-198.
DEDIĆ, Jasminka, JALUŠIČ, Vlasta, ZORN, Jelka. The erased : organized innocence and the politics of exclusion, (Edition Politike). Ljubljana: Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, 2003. 151 pages.
JALUŠIČ, Vlasta (ed.), SUŠNIK, Mojca (ed.). Contemporary citizenship : the politics of exclusion and inclusion II : (is there a chance for a post-national citizenship?) : collection of abstracts. Ljubljana: Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, 2003. 54 pages.
ANTIĆ, Milica G., JALUŠIČ, Vlasta. Slowenien : die Marginalisierung der Bedeutung politischer Partizipation von Frauen in Slowenien. V: HOECKER, Beate (ed.), FUCHS, Gesine (ed.). Handbuch politische Partizipation von Frauen in Europa II. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2003, in print.
ANTIĆ, Milica G. Factors Influencing Women's Presence in Slovene Parliament. In: MATLAND, Richard E. (ed.), MONTGOMERY, Kathleen A. (ed.). Women's access to political power in post-communist Europe, (Gender and politics). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 267-284.
KUHAR, Roman. "Ugh, Filthy Faggots" : homophobic discourse about 'undefined human degenerates'. Intolerance Monitoring Group Report, 2003, 2, 76-107.
8 PAJNIK, Mojca. Poročanje medijev o marginaliziranih skupinah. Soc. delo, 2003, 2, 87-94.
PAJNIK, Mojca. Spektakularno o džamiji. Media Watch Journal (print edition), Mar. 2003, 16, 17-18.
PAJNIK, Mojca. Ženske med spolnostjo in pornografijo. Media Watch Journal (print edition), Mar. 2003, 16, 22.
PAJNIK, Mojca. "Waiter, One Ukrainian, Please!" : medijska reprezentacija prostitucije. Intolerance Monitoring Goup Report, 2003, 2, 144-159.
PAJNIK, Mojca. Tujek, ki ga ni : (k razpravi o džamiji v Sloveniji). Sobota (Koper), Feb. 1 2003, 5, 18.
PAJNIK, Mojca. O dekriminalizaciji prostitucije. Sobota (Koper), Jun. 7 2003, 22, 13.
PAJNIK, Mojca. Balkansko versus evropsko. Večer (Marib.). May 31 2003, 124, 41.
PAJNIK, Mojca. Addressing human rights violations and contemporary exclusions. In: BREGANT, Aleksander (ed.). Human rights education : (report from the 1st Regional Training Session for Southeastern Europe, (Tematski dosjeji, Letnik 1 = Year 1, Št. 2 = Nr.2). [Maribor]: EIP Slovenija - Šola za mir, 2003, 23-25.
ZAVRATNIK ZIMIC, Simona. Constructing "New" boundary : Slovenia and Croatia. Revija za sociologiju, 2003, in print.
ZAVRATNIK ZIMIC, Simona. Etika skrbi v migracijah: trg dela vs. "trg" človekovih pravic. Teor. praksa, 2003, vol. 40, no. , in print.
Effects
The project – in concert with the fellowship program and other Peace Institute programs, related to civil society, migrations, intolerance monitoring and the discourses of exclusion –has considerably affected the public agenda, as well as individual policies. Primarily tackling the issues of exclusion from citizenship, we have acted as advocates for the erased and articulated concrete recommendations in various fields of public policies.
9 Partners
The East East program (conference organization and publication of the collection of summaries)
Funding
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; Open Society Institute (the conference, fellowships)
Timetable
Study work, analyses, fellowships throughout the year Conference preparation Jun-Nov 2003 Preparation of the collection of summaries Sep-Nov 2003 Conference execution Dec. 2003 Publication preparation Dec. 2003, ongoing
Brief Evaluation
The project entered its final stage and proceeded according to plan. We succeeded in combining the analysis of conceptual problems with case studies on citizenship and the public policy analysis. Additionally, we instigated intense international communication between researchers of contemporary citizenship in Eastern Europe, which can serve as a foundation for a research network. We are planning to publish our research with a foreign publisher.
10 Nation-State and Xenophobia
Head of Project
Tonči A. Kuzmanić, PhD [email protected]
Project Team
Vlasta Jalušič, PhD Simona Zimic Zavratnik, PhD Gorazd Korošec, PhD Mojca Pajnik, M.A.
Aims and Goals
Our research was focused on the relation of the phenomenon of the nation-state (strictly speaking, the state reduced to a nation) to the theoretical and phenomenological aspects of the formation and effects of post-socialist xenophobia. We based our work on the broader concept of xenophobia, instead of merely focusing on its psychological aspect. Our primary aim is to demonstrate and prove that »post-socialist problems with xenophobia« are not rooted exclusively in what is commonly referred to as the »societal« and/or the social. They are also closely tied to narrow, traditional or simply incorrect definitons of »politics« and »the state«, while being institutionally structured and functioning institutionally.
Methods
1. Theoretical methods: topical analysis of individual authors, contextual and textual analysis. 2. Empirical methods: descriptive method, textual analysis, interviews, case analysis.
11 Events
Head of the project and the project team appeared at two international conferences on citizenship, held in Ljubljana. Tonči Kuzmanić and Vlasta Jalušič presented the following papers: Kuzmanić: »Aristotle's citizenship?« (first conference, beginning of 2003) and »Against Daydreaming: Toyota citizenship?« (second conference, Dec 2003). Jalušič: "The Predicaments of Citizenship and Transnational Prospects: What Kind of Citizenship Transformation is Needed and What is its Precondition?” (second conference, Dec 2003). In 2003, the project team members appeared in numerous television broadcasts and discussions on xenophobia and intolerance, and granted a number of interviews to domestic and foreign press. In January of 2003, we organized a discussion titled »Is There Still Such a Thing as Foreign Policy?« in the Cankarjev dom cultural and congress center.
Results
In the research-year 2003, we conducted theoretical, as well as empirical research. Our theoretical research yielded a number of articles: Kuzmanić T. (2003). Tuđmanizem in janšizem (zakaj narodništvo ni nacionalizem?). In: DPU Nova desnica, 3. letnik, Mirovni Inštitut. Kuzmanić T. (in print). Kaj je ksenofobija - kdaj in kako lahko uporabljamo koncept? Tretje letno poročilo za spremljanje nestrpnosti v Sloveniji. Jalušič V. (in print): Postwar Identity Discourse: the Politics of Blaiming (Germany). Korošec, G. (to be published in Problemi) Hobbes, narod in država.
The head of the project and the project team are preparing two additional texts for publication:
Koncepta naroda in nacije v pisanju Nove revije (1980-ta in 1990-ta leta); Problem naroda v Heglovi postavitvi Svetovnega duha
12 (we expect to publish these texts in 2004, in Časopis za kritiko znanosti and Teorjia in praksa, respectively).
Our empirical research has produced a semistructured questionnaire to be used in interviews (People-Nation-Xenophobia). In January and February of 2004, we will conduct fifty in-depth interviews with a randomly selected test population. We plan to analyze the data and publish our findings in 2004. Project team member Dr. Simona Zavratnik Zimic is currently preparing to train the researchers in conducting in-depth interviews.
Partners
/
Funding
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport
13 Inclusion of Immigrants into New Societies Utilizing the Ethics of Care. Possibilities of Transition from the Fortress Europe to an Open Europe.
Head of Project
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, PhD [email protected]
Project Team
Mojca Pajnik, M.A., researcher Silva Mežnarič, PhD, consultant
Aims and Goals
The project aimed to analyze different approaches to contemporary integration policies in the European region. The aim was twofold: 1) to present integration models in selected European states (Germany, France, Sweden) and analyze the effects and trends of the development of integration policies in those environments; 2) to analyze the formation of Slovene integration policy in light of the specificity of migrations in the local milieu. We aimed to accomplish the following results: 1) to develop a model, which will promote the inclusion of the ethics of care into definitions of various public policies, particularly those concerning the integration of immigrants into new societies; 2) to present views or recommendations of the most prominent international organizations concerning the integration of immigrants; 3) to formulate certain recommendations concerning measures, which should be included in the Slovene immigration policy, thus to lay the groundwork for the immigration policy, and to present those recommendations to the public.
Content
In our research, we focused on two aspects of the inclusion of immigrants into »new societies« – the sociological term we feel is more appropriate than »host societies«. The latter implies being a guest, staying temporarily and then returning
14 to one's society of origin, while the term »new society« implies integration of immigrants, their visibility and recognizability in public life. The first aspect relates to the analysis of the concept of ethics of care and to the inclusion of the policies of care into the body of integration policies. The ethics of care offer a conceptual framework and place an »ethical imperative« upon integration policies to prioritize the issues of norms and values, social solidarity, achievement of cohesion, and active political involvement. Integration policies concern immigrants as much as any other member of society; they should fundamentally aim to deconstruct foreignness and transcend the arbitrariness of populist presentations of the foreigner as the central figure of modernity. This position steers us towards the shift from the »immigrant-oriented« integration policies to the policies of care, which address society as a whole and ascribe great importance to the concept of active citizenship. The second aspect of our research focused on the analysis of selected national policies regarding the inclusion of immigrants into new societies (those of France, Germany and Sweden). The study of various integration models has shown, that each of the analyzed models affects the situation in its own individual way, and that none of the models are universally successful. In every case, there are differences between the formal conception and the execution of programs in practice, i.e. the difference between set goals and the actual effects of integration programs.
Methods
The methodological framework consisted of: the analysis and interpretation of legal documents (laws, strategic documents and recommendations, constitutions, resolutions etc.), through which one can analyze the legal basis of migration policies at the EU level, at the level of selected member states, as well as in the case of Slovenia; the comparative method, by which we established the similarities and differences between migration policies. This method served to effectively identify the positive aspects, particularly of integration policies in European environments;
15 the model analysis of the ethics of care, i.e. the very possibility of including policies of care into migration policies.
Events
There was a work session titled »Inclusion of Immigrants into New Society. Perspectives of Integration Policies in Slovenia«. It was organized for experts from nongovernmental, intergovernmental and governemtnal organizations, and researchers working in various fields of immigrant integrations. The meeting took place at the KUD France Prešeren cultural center, on Sep. 3, 2003 in Ljubljana. Twenty-four experts from Slovene nongovernmental, intergovernmental and governmental organizations attended.
Results
Final report on the results of the research work; publication in a social-science magazine: Etika skrbi v migracijah. Trg dela vs. »trg« človekovih pravic, Teorija in praksa, vol. 40, 2003 (in press); contribution to the Human Rights Education, 1st Regional Training Session for Southeastern Europe, Maribor (EIP – Šola za mir and the Peace Institute, East- East program); publication of a paper summary: Difference and Human Rights: boundaries between »us« and »them«, v: Human Right Education, Tematski dosjeji št. 2, EPI – Šola za mir, Maribor, 2003, p. 8-10.
Effects
We acquainted various interested parties – namely, the ministries (see “Funding”) and the partner NGO's with whom we cooperate in the field of migrations and human rights – with the results of the project. There has been systematic exchange of information, opinions and views at the special work sessions and we have continued to present our opinions within the established NGO network.
Funding
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; Ministry of the Interior
16 Timetable
Oct 2002 – Oct 2003
Brief Evaluation
The project contributed to initial analyses within a priority topic of the migration studies. We provided a comparative analysis of integration policy models in selected European environments, and suggested the possibilities of integration policies in the Slovene environment. We pointed out the ethical dimension, i.e. the importance of the policies of care, which address a spectrum wider than the partially defined target groups. Additionally, we have called attention to the vulnerable groups within the migration flows. We have received largely positive feedback from the NGO's active in the local Slovene environment. However, we have only scratched the surface of certain problems. Those problems require further analysis.
17 Research on Unaccompanied Minors – Report for Slovenia
Head of Project
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, PhD [email protected]
Project Team Member
Tatjana Pezdir, coordinator
Aims and Goals
The research aimed to analyze the existing data, statistics, legislation, reports and projects concerning the unaccompanied minors in Slovenia. Unaccompanied children travel without the company of parents or guardians, representing one of the most vulnerable groups within the migration flows. Recent studies have shown that the number of unaccompanied minors is on the increase. Therefore, adequate policy responses need to be defined to increase the level of their safety and protection.
Content
The report brings analyses of migration trends, policies, legislation, programs and activities of institutions working in this field. Furthermore, we have identified current issues, related to the phenomenon of unaccompanied minors. It is necessary to define these issues, in order to develop appropriate policies in this field. We have concluded the report by offering various suggestions and guidelines, which could contribute to future monitoring of the situation concerning the unaccompanied minors.
Methods
In the process of assembling the report we have utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods. We began by compiling basic statistical data and
18 analyzing legal instruments. Later on, we conducted structured interviews with representatives of governmental, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, who are active in the fields of migrations, asylum, and child protection, thus gaining new information.
Events
An international workshop was organized in Budapest on the 22nd and the 23rd of May, 2003, intended to review the situation, analyze national environments, and identify models, similarities and differences in the situation of unaccompanied minors in the seven participant states – Slovenia, Croatia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Results
The final report on the »Research on the Unaccompanied Minors in Central Europe« (in print, IOM, Geneva).
Partners
Project leader: International Organization for Migration, Geneva Project partner: MENEDEK, Budapest Project partner in Slovenia: Peace Institute
Funding
MENEDEK, Budapest
Timetable
Research: Mar – May 2003 Synchronizing of national reports: Aug – Sep 2003
Brief Evaluation
Reports from individual states were based on common methodology, which formulated the research structure and the structure of the final report. The final report provided the necessary comparisons. Since the research was conducted in
19 an extremely short period of time, it is primarily descriptive, lacking a thorough analytical approach. We assess that the final report offers a basis for continued research and monitoring of the phenomenon of unaccompanied minors in the Slovene environment. The project is significant for the monitoring of this phenomenon in a broader region, which makes it an important contribution to the analyses of migration flows.
20 Intolerance Monitor
Head of Project
Tonči Kuzmanić, PhD [email protected]
Project Coordinators
Roman Kuhar, M.A., Tomaž Trplan [email protected], [email protected]
Project Team
Authors of texts published in the two issues of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report (listed alphabetically): Miha Ceglar, Srečo Dragoš, Majda Hrženjak, Vlasta Jalušič, Gorazd Kovačič, Blaž Kovačič, Roman Kuhar, Tonči A. Kuzmanić, Aldo Milohnić, Maja Olup, Mojca Pajnik, Brankica Petković, Dean Zagorac, Simona Zavratnik Zimic.
Aims and Goals
The Intolerance Monitoring Group aims to systematically monitor and analyze intolerance in its various manifestations. In addition to conducting research, the group is active in the public arena, fighting intolerance. It calls attention to the public presence of intolerant discourse, studies legal standards of fighting intolerance, suggests changes, and organizes research workshops and public events to encourage debate on the issue of intolerance.
Content
The beginning of 2003 has seen the publication of the second issue of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report, basically a fruit of the work conducted in the previous year. In the spring, the group began working on the third issue of the report, due out in the beginning of 2004. In the fall, we thoroughly revised the
21 report on racist extremism, which we had prepared while working on an international project. Coordinated by the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, reports were prepared in nine Eastern and Central European states, either EU accession states or accession candidates. Regrettably, we were not accepted as a national focal point by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).
Method
In 2003, we changed our work method – the group stopped collecting and archiving media articles, as this solution had proven both financially cumbersome and unreliable. The new work method involves the project coordinators consulting other group members, and then, based on their editorial suggestions, inviting authors to participate. The invitation to group members and other authors to contribute non-commissioned work stands.
Events
At the end of January 2003, we organized a press conference at the library of the Peace Institute to promote the second issue of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report.
Results
The end of January 2003 has seen the publication of the second issue of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report. It is over 200 pages long and contains texts by Tonči A. Kuzmanić (Xenophobia in Former Yugoslavia and Post- Socialist Slovenia), Srečo Dragoš (Islam and a Suicidal Tribe under the Alps), Brankica Petković (Roma in Slovenia – Foreigners Forever?), Roman Kuhar ("Ugh, Filthy Faggots!"), Gorazd Kovačič (Extremism, Exclusion and Anti- liberalism of NATO Supporters), Simona Zavratnik Zimic (War Juggling), Mojca Pajnik ("Waiter, One Ukrainian, Please!") and Maja Olup (Vzlet in padec sokola). The report also includes dictionary explanations of the terms »ethnicity«, »humor and ethnicity«, »language« and »race and ethnicity«, as well as a reprint
22 of the article »Nacionalizem v slovenskem prostoru«, published by Jože Koporec in the Slovene National Party's Panter newspaper. Preparation of the report on racist extremism, coordinated by the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies. Texts from EU accession states and accession candidates will be published collectively.
Effects
The Intolerance Monitoring Group Report has established itself as a reference point in intolerance studies. It has been in demand throughout the year, and we have already received inquiries on when the next issue is coming out.
Partners
For the state reports on extremism project: LCHRES (Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies) and Open Society Institute, Budapest.
Timetable
Publication of the report: Jan 2003 Work on the third issue of the report: May-Dec 2003 Report on racist extremism: Jul -Nov 2003
Brief Evaluation
The publication of the third issue of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report has been delayed considerably. To avoid this in the future, a board of editors should be formed to work out the profile of the report in greater detail (overlapping of topics with the Media Watch Journal). We attribute the failure of our application to become the EUMC national focal point to a slight oversight. We will attempt to correct it by responding to this year's call for applications, which has been announced for February.
23 Workers' Punk University
Head of Project
Tonči Kuzmanić, PhD [email protected]
Project Team
Ciril Oberstar, project coordinator [email protected] Tel.: +386 1 234 77 32
Program board members: Sabina Autor, Miha Ceglar, Goran Forbici, Gregor Ilaš, Gorazd Kovačič, Živa Humer, Maks Kaš.
Aims and Goals
The Workers' and Punks’ University (WPU) is an educational project offering additional and active education in social and political sciences to the public at large, particularly to young people, to undergraduate graduate and postgraduate students. The Workers' and Punks’ University activities are open to non-academic participants as well. The WPU is concerned with promoting public thinking, public discussion and stressing the role of the public in political and social development, while encouraging an intellectual approach to the treatment of social and political topics.
Content
The theme of the WPU's 6th year (Jan-May 2003) was »May '68 – reVISION«. It was divided into three major units: emancipation movements triggered by the events of May 1968, the degeneration of these movements into violence, and their conclusion in what we now call, albeit with some reservation, civil society.
24 The theme of the WPU's 7th year (Oct-Dec 2003) is »Love and Politics: the Role of Passions, Affections and Desires in the Political Field«. With this theme, we aim to problemize the role of emotionalization in the political field, and provide reflections on the borderline areas of research of the political.
Methods
Audiences' active participation in the discussions following the lectures insures and enables a clear illustration of the year's title theme, while stimulating the dialogue between lecturers and the public. The interdisciplinary lecture cycles, wherein lecturers from different fields of expertise (philosophy, political science, law, history) present different aspects of title themes, introduce the audience to the full scope of the themes in question. This enables the students of different subjects to absorb the knowledge from areas, with which they do not get acquainted at their respective faculties. Reading circles, based on the detailed reading and studying of selected texts under the mentorship of established experts, focus on the theoretical characterization of current sociopolitical events.
Events and Activities
In 2003, we conducted all lectures planned for the 6th year of the WPU. The reading and discussion circle met for eight sessions between October and the end of December. The schedule for the 7th year of the WPU, titled »Love and Politics«, includes the following: a cycle of 22 lectures of Slovene and foreign theoreticians from the fields of social sciences and humanities, regarding the theme of love and politics. In 2003, the WPU organized five lectures and a day-long symposium with eight participating professors. By April of 2004, we plan to give seventeen more lectures; two reading circles have been meeting since October 2003. The first one, under the mentorship of Igor Pribac, PhD has been reading A Grammar of the Multitude by the Italian theoretician Paolo Virno. The second, dedicated to
25 studying the history of social and political thought, has been meeting under the mentorship of Božidar Debenjak, PhD; a symposium honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of T.W. Adorno took place on Dec. 4 2003; the panel consisted of eight lecturers; we will promote our events in the press – in the Mladina magazine and the Delo and Večer dailies – and on Radio Študent, a student radio station.
Results
In 2003, the WPU published collections of lectures from its 2nd and 3rd year. We have been putting out fliers on a monthly basis, containing short summaries of lectures and biographies of lecturers. We launched a renewed version of our website in November of 2003. We update it regularly with dates and descriptions of the WPU events. We are planning to publish a collection of texts from the symposium on Adorno, which took place on Dec. 4 of last year, in 2004.
Effects
The WPU is becoming increasingly recognizable in the public eye, a fact demonstrated by the ever greater turn-out at its lectures, as well as its reading circles. The title theme of the 7th year garnered considerable media response, which we documented by collecting press articles and television reports from WPU events. The lectures are purposely conducted in a way that attracts as many people, of as many profiles, as possible. Accordingly, we have chosen to give the lectures at the Gromka Club, located in Metelkova, an alternative cultural/political/community center in Ljubljana, making them accessible to non-academics and political activists. The space itself insures the technical quality of lectures by offering the necessary infrastructure: a PA system, and a variety of tools for the visual presentation of lecture materials – an LCD projector, a slide projector and an overhead projector. About three hundred users subscribe to our mailing list (e-mail: [email protected]), which we have set up on the server of the Ljubljana
26 Digital Media Lab (Ljudmila) to promote the lectures. Additionally, we signed a contract with Radio Študent, granting us free air-time to advetise our events. Ciril Horjak and Izidor Lunaček, comic book artists from the circle based around the Stripburger magazine, created a promotional poster for this year's title theme of »Love and Politics«.
Partners
/
Funding
HESP – OSI (Higher Education Support Program – Open Society institute); Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (program for co-funding of the promotion of science in 2004); The Youth Board of the City Municipality of Ljubljana (co- funding of youth activity programs in 2003); USA Embassy (Democracy Commission Grants)
Timetable
6th year of the Workers' Punk University: May '68 reVISION
01/16/03 Zdene Vrdlovec: Film through the Eyes of May '68 01/23/03 Lev Kreft: Product Fetishism and the City of Women 01/30/03 Miha Zadnikar: Taking a Saxophone Machine-Gun to the System, to Self- Sufficiency 02/06/03 Igor Prassel: Fritz the Cat: from a Comic Book into a Cartoon 02/13/03 Samuel Abraham: 1968 Czechoslovakia – the End of an Illusion 02/27/03 Ičo Vidmar: »I'm Black and I'm Proud«: Amiri Baraka, James Brown and Ornette Coleman – Black Expressive Culture in the Midst of the 60's Civil Rights Struggle in the U.S. 03/13/03 Rado Riha: The Desire of Revolution 03/20/03 Brian Holmes: Breaking out an Imposed Subjectivity 03/27/03 Judy Greenway: Make Love Not War? Free Love and Sexual Liberation, and Changing the World
27 04/03/03 Alen Ožbolt: Personal and Public Spaces (from the A4 Format to the Physical Space and the Time Factor): Is the Cultural Gesture of 1968 Possible These Days?
Symposium: Violence/Non-Violence – May 10 2003. Panel: Dr. Vlasta Jalušič, Gorazd Kocjančič, Dr. Tonči Kuzmanić, Dr. Mirjana Nastran Ule, Dr. Igor Pribac, Dr. Jana Rošker, Dr. Darko Štrajn, Dr. Alenka Zupančič
7th year of the Workers' Punk University: Love and Politics
05/10/03 to 01/10/03 Formulation of the problem and the theme, research into the situation in the field, preparation of the theme and the lecture schedule, contacting the lecturers, drafting of co-operation contracts, reports on the co-funding.
Organization of five lectures and a symposium: 11/06/03 Žarko Puhovski: Love as a Radical Evil. The Fatality of the Political Emotionalization in the 20th Century. 11/13/03 Janez Krek: Love and Gandhi's Policy of Non-Violence 11/27/03 Peter Mlakar: From Politics to the Principle of Good, and Onward 12/04/03 symposium: Hommage à Theodor W. Adorno Panel: Dr. Božidar Debenjak, Dr. Lev Kreft, Dr. Žarko Puhovski, Dr. Darko Štrajn, Dr. Cvetka Toth, Dr. Jože Vogrinc, Dr. Dušan Rutar and Miha Zadnikar. 12/11/03 Janez Vrečko: The Everlasting Love of Črtomir and Bogomila 12/18/03 Dušan Maljković: Fuck the Conservative!
Brief Evaluation
The WPU is a complex project, spanning many aspects (public, theoretical, organizational, technical), so it is difficult to make a simple and coherent evaluation of its effects. We can say, however, that we have succeeded in launching the title theme of its 7th year into the public debate. Articles, commentaries and columns, which have mentioned this year's events, testify to this:
28 Miha Zadnikar, »Ljubezen do politike«, Mladina št. 45, 10. november 2003 (http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200345/clanek/kul-transnacional-- miha_zadnikar) Rastko Močnik, »Bo slovenska vlada okupirala Irak z nevladnimi organizacijami?«, Mladina št. 46, 17. november 2003 (http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200346/clanek/slo-kolumna--rastko_mocnik) Jela Krečič, »O etičnih držah na tonečem Titaniku«, Delo, 16. december 2003. Nina Jerman, televizijski prispevek ob 100. obletnici Adornovega rojstva, na RTV Slovenija 1, Odmevi, Kultura.
Attendance of the WPU lectures and of the symposium has either equaled or exceeded that of the previous year's events. We are therefore beginning to face entirely new space-related problems, brought about by massive attendance. The WPU reading circles are progressing by the year. We have marked an increase in the number of regular participants, while more and more professors and researchers from other research institutes have been turning up, which we certainly consider an honor. This year's symposium proceeded according to plan. It made a considerable impact in the public, a fact apparent from the huge audience turn-out. The choice of this year's theme, love and politics, brings about the risk of the theme being incomprehensible and inaccessible to the public, as it adds an abstract dimension to the discussion. Even so, the lecturers have thus far been able to bring the theme down to earth. Yet we do not wish, nor may we, ignore the complaint that the theme is too philosophical in nature. For it was with this theme – in this aspect a departure from title themes of past years – that we have consciously shifted the conception of the problem of that same political public the WPU is addressing. While the primary objective of past themes has been to comprehend either recent or more distant political events and phenomena (neo-conservatism, the new right, May '68) from a theoretical point of view, this year's theme aims to consider the theories of the times, in which those events took place, in addition to comprehending the events themselves. Therefore, by including a purely theoretical dimension, we have credited theory with having an effect on and being connected to actual political events, even if it is not directly involved with politics.
29 Conflict Resolution in the Community (REKOS)
Project Coordinator
Mojca Sušnik [email protected] Tel.: +386 1 234 77 32
Project Team
Elizabeta Kirn, Ernesta Koprivc, Mojca Manček, Meta Privšek, Ksenija Šabec and Katarina Višnar
Aims and Goals
We aimed to conclude the Rekos Autumn School education cycle and form a new project team. Also, one of the main goals was to prepare an application to the Council of Europe Confidence-Building Measures Programme. Project team member Katarina Višnar attended the Central European Summer School for Conflict Resolution (CESS-CR) Æ training program for Community-based Conflict Resolution (CBCR), Advanced group (Salzburg, Austria), organized by Friedensbüro Salzburg and Kulturkontakt Austria.
Content
We learned conflict resolution techniques (particularly the 'Field Process') and gathered theoretical knowledge from a broader socio-political context.
Methods
Seminars, workshops, lectures, viewing of selected films.
Events
We did not organize any public events this year.
30 The group conducted and concluded the Rekos Autumn School – viewing selected films and discussing them afterwards – in January, February and April, after which the Peace Institute presented the more active group members with certificates. During May, June and the beginning of July, the most active members redefined the purpose for the existence of the Rekos group. Through this process, the inner core of the group was formed, humorously dubbing itself »the Rekos Dream Team« and starting its own mailing list for the purposes of group coordination and discussion of various topics.
Results
/
Effects
/
Partners
Friedensbüro, Salzburg, Austria (mag. Hania Fedorowicz)
Funding
Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana
Timetable
The timetable will depend on the reply to our application to the Council of Europe project and will be submitted at a later date.
Brief Evaluation
The Rekos group successfully concluded the education cycle and formed the group core. The group will begin field work in the near future, while continuing the education process. We have applied for funding with the Council of Europe and prepared the project plan. The group did not succeed in organizing any public events or publishing any written work. In the event of a positive response from the Council of Europe, we will become active in this area, as the project plan includes a
31 number of public events and the publication of a brochure. If we should receive a negative response, we will prepare a new plan of work.
32 The Peace Institute Forum
Coordinator
Roman Kuhar, M.A. E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +386 (0)1 234 77 29
Project Team
Researchers from the Peace Institute
Aims and Goals
The Peace Institute Forum is a way of opening up the public debate. The Forum is on a continuing mission to discuss suppressed or ignored political, social and cultural issues. Guests of the Forum – persons who are prominent in Slovene and international public life (either expert or political) – express their positions on dilemmas of the present, the past and the future, thus helping us widen the democratic horizons in the post-socialist milieu.
Content
The project aims to broach the issues that are regularly addressed in public, or central to the current public debate, but are presented unevenly, in that only certain views of a particular issue take center stage, while others – call them »fringe« views – go by the wayside. Another one of the benefits of the Forum's events is that the guests reflect on current decisions of the Slovene political leadership, and that the general public is invited to participate as well.
Methods
We organize moderated round table discussions, in which we open the public space to opinions and people not commonly heard in the public media. Audiences of the Forum's events are included in the discussions as well. Events take place in
33 the Cankarjev dom cultural and congressional center. The general public receives information on the events through the Peace Institute electronic and postal mailing lists, with Cankarjev dom providing additional promotion for individual events.
Events
We organized four discussions in 2003: 1. Is There Still Such a Thing as Foreign Policy? (Feb. 6 2003) 2. The Peace Movement Today: Eternal Pacifism or a Different Kind of Politics? (Mar. 19 2003) 3. Slovenia, the European Union and the Same-Sex Oriented (Oct. 29 2003) – co-organized with the Europe Center's European Wednesdays program 4. Slave Trade – Exploitation of Women by the Sex Industry (Nov. 17 2003)
We chose current issues to be our topics of discussion, and used the latter two discussions to present two studies conducted by the Peace Institute (on the same- sex oriented in Slovenia and on slave trade). Slovene media reported on the events and asked a number of our foreign guests to give separate interviews.
Effects
Our events succeeded in opening up the public space to the aspects of current issues that go widely unreported. We were able to introduce these aspects to the general public, as the media frequently reported on our events.
Funding
OSI New York
Timetable
Is There Still Such a Thing as Foreign Policy? (Feb. 6 2003) The Peace Movement Today: Eternal Pacifism or a Different Kind of Politics? (Mar. 19 2003) Slovenia, the European Union and the Same-Sex Oriented (Oct. 29 2003) Slave Trade – Exploitation of Women by the Sex Industry (Nov. 17 2003)
34 Brief Evaluation
We organized more events in this year than in the previous one. The Forum became a recognized »institution« of the Peace Institute, achieving its goals and broaching issues not normally addressed in other public debates.
35 CENTER FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
36 In 2003, the Center for Civil Society (CCS) conducted a number of projects of varying scope and duration. We will mention smaller, one-off projects in the introduction, and offer detailed descriptions of the more extensive projects later in the report.
Jasminka Dedić, an associate of the Peace Institute, actively participated in a group of fifteen NGO's, which prepared an alternative report on the carrying out of the UN Covention on the Rights of the Child in Slovenia. In Slovenia, the project was coordinated by the South-East European Child Rights Action Network (SEECRAN). Jasminka Dedić was also among those who presented the alternative report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva on Oct 8. Amnesty International Slovenia chose the Peace Intitute/CCS as a partner in the publication of the extensive Human Rights of Women (Človekove pravice žensk) manual. The project is funded by Royal Netherlands Embassy. The latter half of 2003 was spent doing conceptual and editorial work, translating international conventions and other documents, and writing introductory texts. The project will conclude in 2004 with the publication of the book. It is being edited by Dean Zagorac (AI) and Dr. Vlasta Jalušič (head of the Peace Institute).
The Peace Institute initiated the project of legal aid for the activists facing the threat of illegal eviction from the AC Molotov squat by Slovene Railroads, the building's owner. The activists were submitted to constant harassment by the owners, the G7 private security company and the police. The legal aid, provided by the the Legal Information Centre for NGO's, enabled the activists to reach an agreement with the Slovene Railroads, permitting them to stay in the building for an additional year following the forceful attempt of eviction. Encouraged by the CCS, the activist group compiled the extensive AC Molotov dossier, the only copy of which is kept in the Peace Institute library. The dossier is available for viewing to any and all interested parties.
In the cycle which we named Human Rights Around the World (Človekove pravice po svetu) we took part in two projects: (1) We provided a small filming crew – who at that time were receiving no additional funding – with the funds to travel to the
37 Western Sahara region, specifically to southern Algiria, where an exiled people is being robbed of basic human rights. This led to the making of the documentary titled The Borders of My World (Meje mojega sveta) (screenplay by A. Morovič, directed by B. Petkovič, produced by RTV Slovenija and Bindweed Soundvision). The film was shown on Oct. 4, to a sold-out crowd at the theater of the Slovenian Cinematheque, and later to students of the Faculty of Arts at the Gromka club in Metelkova. It was aired in prime time on TV Slovenija 1. (2) We acted as a liaison in getting the film Kenedi is Coming Back (Kenedi se vrača domov), directed by Želimir Žitnik, included in the program of the Autumn Film School. The film, detailing the deportations of Roma from Germany to Serbia, was shown by the Slovenian Cinematheque on Oct. 23.
The Maribor-based Aristej publishing house published a book by Albert Mrgole, based on the project titled Preparation of an Expert Basis for the Development of Informal Work with Young People (Priprava strokovnih podlag za razvoj neformalnega dela z mladimi). The research was conducted under the CCS in 2001 and 2002 in cooperation with the government's Office for youth.
We continued working with the Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs (CNVOS), taking part in the formation of the so-called NGO social network – formed by an ad hoc work group – which, in 2002, prepared a much talked-about analysis of the first report on the execution of the national program for combating poverty and social exclusion. We took part in the conference titled Let's Start Working Together (Vzpostavimo sodelovanje), held in December to discuss cooperation between NGO's and the government (we actively participated in the workshop on »civil dialogue«). We took part in the conceptual stage of a survey research project on the existing indicators of (non)cooperation between NGO's and the government. The project is headed by representatives of the Netherlands-based MEDE organization, and funded by MATRA. We had to terminate our participation in the project due to temporal restraints. Still, the Peace Institute/CCS keeps a representative in the steering committee of the United Nations Development Programme project titled Strengthening of NGOs for
38 Development, Advocacy and Policy Processes, the bulk of which is being conducted under the auspices of CNVOS.
In the field of human rights, we continued to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' sector for multilateral politics (occasional meetings to discuss the so-called »human safety network«, international activity of Slovenia concerning human rights protection, etc.). We actively participated in an international round table discussion on the national institution of human rights, held in Ljubljana by the Human Rights Ombudsman on Oct. 20 an Oct. 21. We also attended a round table discussion, held by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in Ljubljana on Oct. 14, and a Nov. 28 meeting between NGO's and Mr. Reinhard Priebe, Director Western Balkans of the DG External Relations, European Commission.
39 Metelkova Information Network
Head of Project
Aldo Milohnić, M.A.
Project Team
Tomaž Trplan, coordinator Jernej Horvat, technical support
Aims and Goals
The goal of the project was to provide the tenants at Metelkova 6 – a home to about twenty NGO's active in the fields of scientific research, environmentalism, culture, arts, volunteer work etc. – with high speed access to computer networks. The long- term project plans include connecting the building to the so-called North and South parts of Metelkova, i.e. non-institutional culture organizations, as well as cultural institutions of national significance. The latter was agreed upon during the discussions with the Ministry of Culture.
Content
We continued and concluded the project begun in 2001, when, upon the confirmation of interest from other building tenants, we received funding from the Ministry of Information Society and had a fiber-optic line laid up to the building. In 2002 we proceeded to lay fiber-optic cables throughout the building and bought the necessary technical equipment. The project was concluded in 2003. We helped the users in the building wire their offices and activated the main connnection in May. The proces of connecting individual users started in spring (most were connected in May and June). At the end of 2003, seventeen organizations with offices at Metelkova 6 were using the internet connection.
40 SPL (the company managing the building) agreed to take over the project, while the Ministry of Culture agreed in principle to buy the technical equipment initially paid for by the Peace Institute.
Methods
Building tenants were regularly informed of the project's progress. We organized a few meetings with representatives of interested NGO's, discussed matters with SPL and the Ministry of Culture, and took care of the technical execution.
Events
Office wiring, connection activation, reaching of the agreements with SPL and the Ministry of Culture.
Results
A working, high-speed internet connection (100 Mbit/s), provides Metelkova 6 tenants with a significantly higher data transfer rate and a 24-hour internet access, while considerably decreasing the communication costs of nearly twenty NGO's.
Partners
ARNES, Ministry of Culture, SPL
Users
Metelkova 6 building tenants.
Funding
Ministry of Information Society; OSI-NY; Ministry of Culture.
Timetable
Talks with tenants, the Ministry of Culture and SPL – throughout the year Connection activation – May Cable laying – June
41 Connecting users – the majority of users were connected in May and June
Brief Evaluation
The Metelkova Networking project was successfully concluded this year. Building tenants have access to a broadband (100 Mbit/s) fiber-optic line, enabling a high data transfer rate. We reached favorable agreements with SPL and the Ministry of Culture – SPL will take over the network management, while the Ministry of Culture agreed to buy the technical equipment from the Peace Institute. Yet, as we conclude the project, we assess that it has taken too long to finish (it was initiated in 2001 and concluded in 2003).
42 Politike Edition
Head of Project
Aldo Milohnić, M.A., editor
Project Team
Authors of published texts (Bratko Bibič, M.A., Matej Kovačič, Dr. Vesna Leskošek, Dr. Srečo Dragoš, Dr. Alenka Švab, Dr. Selma Sevenhuijsen, Dr. Majda Pahor, Ružica Boškić, Jasminka Dedić, M.A., Dr. Vlasta Jalušič, Dr. Jelka Zorn, Matevž Krivic), translators (Olga Vuković, Polona Mesec), proof-readers (Nevenka Škrlj, Alvina Žuraj, Murray Bales, Michelle Gadpaille), corrector (Jasna Babič), designer (Irena Wölle), printer (Stane Peklaj).
Aims and Goals
Politike edition offers reflections on various civil society and public policy issues. The texts are mostly produced by associates of the Peace Institute and outside associates as results of policy and research projects. The edition targets experts, public policy makers, professors, students and researchers, as well as a wider audience interested in the latest research in the field of social sciences and the humanities.
Content
In 2003, we published five books, mostly based on research projects of the Peace Institute and its outside associates: Srečo Dragoš and Vesna Leskošek: Social Inequality and Social Capital (Slovene- English edition) Matej Kovačič: Privacy on the Internet (Slovene-English edition) Selma Sevenhuijsen and Alenka Švab (ed.): Labyrinths of Care: the Relevance of the Ethics of Care Perspective for Slovenian Social Policy (Slovene-English edition)
43 Bratko Bibič: Hrup z Metelkove. Tranzicije prostorov in kulture v Ljubljani (Slovene edition) Jasminka Dedić, Vlasta Jalušič and Jelka Zorn: The Erased: Organized Innocence and the Politics of Exclusion (Slovene and English editions – separate bindings)
Methods
We print the books in two formats, normally in Slovene and English. We send a limited number of copies of each book to our target readership (to opinion makers, publicists, intellectuals, journalists, professors, and to those high-ranking state officials who we assume are interested in the topics of our editions), and sell the rest at reasonable prices.
Events
We mark the publications of new books with press conferences or discussions on the issues the books are addressing. We have organized these events in Ljubljana and in other places in Slovenia: the information and documentation center of the Council of Europe, Menza pri koritu, the Gromka club, Kiberpipa, Pina (Koper) and Kibla (Maribor). A presentation of the edition is available on the Peace Institute website and in the Peace Institute publications catalogue.
Results
We published five books, four in both English and Slovene, and one in Slovene only. We held eight presentations or discussions in Ljubljana, Maribor and Koper. We were present at the Slovene Book Fair in Cankarjev dom and published the annual catalogue of Peace Institute publications.
Effects
The books published in 2003 sounded with the public, particularly the book on the »erased«. The books Privacy on the Internet and Hrup z Metelkove have been in great demand as well. Books published in the Politike edition are used as study materials at the university and in certain debate circles (particularly in high schools participating in the debate program of the Pro et Contra Institute for the Culture of
44 Dialogue), and often serve as information sources to journalists. We sent some books (particularly The Erased) to members of the National Assembly and others (Social Inequality and Social Capital) to local communities.
Partners
Študentska založba (distribution) and organizations with whom we organized the book presentations (check under »Events«).
Funding
City Municiptality of Ljubljana (funding for the book Hrup z Metelkove); Ministry of Information Society (bought a small amount of copies of the book Privacy on the Internet); OSI-NY
Timetable
Social Inequality and Social Capital – Feb. Privacy on the Internet – May. Labyrinths of Care – Aug. Hrup z Metelkove – Sep. The Erased – Oct.
Brief Evaluation
We can consider the publication of five books in 2003 to be a fair accomplishment. The books received considerable attention, the issues discussed were pressing, yet mostly overlooked by other research organizations and publishers. We can attest to the quality of authors and other collaborators, who help us maintain our publication standards. We feel our promotional activites have been successful, particularly the public presentations, which were not confined to Ljubljana. Some of our books brought us a great deal of media attention (reviews in expert periodicals and specialized newspapers), while others did not receive the response we had expected. Due to extreme public importance of the issue and the situation, that kept changing on a literally daily basis, we did not print the book on the »erased« until autumn, even though its publication had been scheduled for spring.
45 Still, we did not miss much, as the considerations of the legal status of the erased citizens of Slovenia entered the parliamentary proceedings at precisely the time when the book left the printing press.
46 Monitoring Group of Immigrants' and Aliens' Legislation
Head of Project
As the group is organized as an informal coalition of NGO's, there is no head of the project nor an official representative.
Project Team
Maja Pilih, Maja Tratar, Darjono Husodo, Mirjana Miličić, Neža Kogovšek, Karmen Furlan, Anita Longo, Nataša Posel, Franci Zlatar, Aldo Milohnić, M.A., Dr. Simona Zavratnik Zimic, Tatjana Pezdir and others.
Aims and Goals
The group of NGO's, initially concerned with recommending changes to the Law on Asylum and commenting on the propositions of the Ministry of the Interior, continued monitoring the changes of other laws related to immigration groups (Aliens Act, regulations on the rights of asylum seekers, etc.). The group was particularly active advocating the rights of the refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina (in situations related to the granting of permanent resident status, closing of refugee centers, etc.)
Content
A critical analysis of the drafts of new »immigration« laws, preparation of reports and amendments, and monitoring (to the extent of our abilities) of the application of these laws. The group was particularly active during the closing of the refugee center in Vič in the suburb of Ljubljana, supporting the legitimate demands of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were living there. Much was done to gather information and help the refugees overcome a number of bureaucratic obstacles, which they were facing in their attempts to change their status of »temporary refugees« to that of aliens with a permanent residence in the Republic of Slovenia. The group called attention to a special category of refugees from Bosnia
47 and Herzegovina – those who, due to unfortunate circumstances, were not able to get registered as permanent residents, and have yet to receive any kind of permanent status in this country.
Methods
This is an informal monitoring and pressure group. It has no official representatives. The necessary coordination was performed according to the horizontal (network) principle. All six participating organizations acted in concert, submitting joint comments to the author of the draft, preparing amendments for the parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, as well as appearing publicly in round table discussions and in the media.
Events
Continued collaboration with other NGO's, internal discussions, writing of amendments and public statements. Suggestions and recommendations to the author of legal drafts. Participation in the sessions of the parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs. Participation in the sessions of the Office for Immigration and Refugees. Participation in public discussions.
Results
Influence on the improvement of immigrants' and aliens' legislation. -Providing statistical indicators of the lack of any permanent status within the category of former »temporary« refugees, who, due to a switch of their refugee status to that of aliens, were unable to get registered as permanent residents (the law on changes and amendments to the Asylum Act does not make provisions for this category of refugees). Joint preparation of the material titled »Information for Former Temporary Residents Who Received the Permission for a Permanent Residence According to the Law on Changes and Amendments to the Asylum Act«, published in the March issue of the Refugee Times magazine. Joint press conference of participating NGO's in observance of the Refugee Day.
48 Work session titled »Inclusion of Immigrants into a New Society. Perspectives of Immigration Policies in Slovenia«, attended by 24 representatives of governmental, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations. The session was a part of the project »Inclusion of Immigrants into New Societies Utilizing the Ethics of Care«, headed by Dr. Simona Zavratnik Zimic. A contribution to the »Invisible Threat« symposium, held during the Break Festival in Ljubljana, on the issues of undocumented migrations and illegal alien detection methods. A contribution to the »Human Rights Education, 1st Regional Training Session for Southeastern Europe«, organized in Maribor by EIP – School for Peace and the Peace Institute, on migration and human rights. Publication of the contribution to the »Human Rights Education« conference. Human Rights Education, Tematski dosjeji, 2, EPI – Šola za mir, Maribor 2003. Publication of the article »Čakanje, izčrpavanje in prelaganje ali o ‘integraciji’ nekdanjih ‘začasnih’ beguncev«, Begunski časi, 2, Mar. 2003, 7. Interview on asylum and refugee policies in Slovenia, published in the Panorama supplement of Vijesnik (Zagreb,Croatia), on Aug. 9.
Effects
Alleviating of the legislative restrictions (compared to initial proposals of the relevant ministry). Insuring more benefits for persons granted a more permanent status following the ten years spent in insecurity as »temporary refugees«. Protection of the rights of people living in the Vič refugee center at the time of its closing. Protection of rights of inhabitants of other refugee centers due to close in 2004. Influence over the media image of refugees and other categories of immigrants.
Partners
Amnesty International Slovenia, KUD France Prešeren - the "Exiles" project, Slovene philanthropy, GEA 2000 Fundation, Legal Information Centre for NGO's
49 Funding
OSI-NY; Partnering organizations (donating labour and expertise)
Timetable
First half of the year, up to the Refugee Day press conference – looking over the documentation of »temporary« refugees' legal advisors. Jun. 20 - Press conference in observance of the Refugee Day, presentation of statistical data, etc. Apr. - Visit to the defector detection center in Dover, UK, to conduct research for the contribution to the »Invisible Threat« symposium. Jun. - Contribution to the »Invisible Threat« symposium. Oct. 31 - Contribution to the »Human Rights Education« conference in Maribor.
Brief Evaluation
The informal group (»coalition«) of six NGO's was not as active in 2003 as in previous years, which had been expected. The National Assembly passed the key laws, regulating the rights and duties of asylum seekers, refugees, former »temporary« refugees and aliens, in 2001 and 2002. At that time, the group actively participated in the adoption of those laws by offering suggestions. The amount of activity was further impaired by other circumstances, particularly the departure of several important team members abroad, maternity leave, medical treatment, etc. A few of the participating NGO's established a new group (called Živa), with the priority of fundraising for NGO activities. In spite of all this, the group continues to function, to communicate via an electronic mailing list, and to convene if the need arises.
50 Police and Human Rights
Head of Project
As the group is organized as an informal coalition of NGO's, there is no head of the project nor an official representative.
Project Team
The project was conducted in collaboration with Katarina Zidar (Amnesty International Slovenia), Vita Habjan (Legal Information Centre for NGO's), Matej Zonta and others.
Aims and Goals
The group was formed as a response to the announcement of changes of the Police Act and the regulations concerning the complaint procedure (in cases of human rights violation in police procedures). The group aimed to insure a higher level of human rights protection within police procedures, particularly in terms of shifting of the decision making in complaint procedure from the police to the Ministry of the Interior and the appelate bodies.
Content
The group prepared comments on the draft of the law on amendments and changes to the Police Act (specifically to the article related to the complaint procedure) and to the draft of the regulations on complaint resolution.
Methods
Group efforts (particulary by Katarina Zidar, AIS) in the preparation of comments and amendments. Correspondence with the minister of internal affairs. Participation in meetings of the NGO group, in meetings with the Ministry of the Interior representatives, police and police union representatives, and in sessions of the National Assembly and the parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs.
51 Events
A number of NGO group work sessions. Meetings with the Ministry of the Interior representatives (Apr. 2 and Oct. 14 – police and police union representatives attended the latter meeting), and with the United List of Social Democrats of Slovenia deputy group (May 12). Participation in sessions of the National Assembly Commission on Political System (Jun. 17) and the Committee on Home Affairs (Jun. 26 and Jul. 1).
Results
The article of the law on amendments and changes of the Police Act, concerning the complaint procedure, was changed. This enabled the change of regulations on complaint resolution to increase transparency and relative objectivity in resolution of complaints against the actions of police personnel.
Effects
Changes to the regulations will be implemented in February of 2004. We hope there will be an increase of trust toward objectivity and transparency of complaint procedures regarding the actions of police personnel. NGO's, the Human Rights Ombudsman and others working in the field of human rights have been calling attention to this problem for a number of years.
Partners
Amnesty International Slovenia, Information Centre for NGO's, individuals
Funding
OSI–NY (the project required minimal funding)
Timetable
The project was conducted throughout the year, but intensified between April and June, when a number of important sessions of relevant state bodies took place (see
52 “Events”). This was also a period of intense correspondence with the Ministry of the Interior, as well as between the NGO group participants.
Brief Evaluation
We are satisfied with the projeect. Our comments and amendments brought considerable improvements to the Police Act and the complaints regulations. The group proposed to not only shift the complaints procedure from police jurisdiction to that of the ministry (this was achieved), but to remove it from the ministry altogether and entrust it to a new or an existing institution, which would insure independent and objective decisions on the complaints. We could not accomplish this in given circumstances, but still feel that a substantial step has been made towards better human rights protection by entrusting the complaint resolution procedure to the Ministry of the Interior.
53 Publications on Roma Rights
Head of Project
Aldo Milohnić, M.A
Project Team
Jasminka Dedić, M.A, Jasna Babič
Aims and Goals
There is an apparent lack of Roma rights advocates among the Roma population, which has a negative influence on the prospect of improvement of their social, economic and political situation. This project aims to help Roma recognize and respond to cases of discrimination, and to encourage Roma activists to organize and actively oppose discrimination and social exclusion of Roma in Slovenia.
Content
Translation of two brochures of practical advice for Roma who are subjected to discrimination or racism in their living environment. The booklets also include basic information on human rights protection and organization of Roma activists.
Methods
Translation and publication of two brochures, which are being sent free of charge to target groups, politicians and media. Assistance with the establishing of an informal network, through which Roma activists could interact.
Events
We planned no public events related to this project. There is a possibility of organizing promotional events in 2004.
54 Results
Translation and publication of two brochures, previously published by ERRC (the European Roma Rights Center) Political Participation and Democracy in Europe: A Short Guide for Romani Activists and Recognising and Combating Racial Discrimination: A Short Guide for Persons Working in the Field of Roma Rights. In December, we sent the brochures to all Roma associations, to parliamentary deputy groups, to certain media, NGO's and individuals. We wil continue sending the brochures in 2004.
Effects
As we only received the brochures from the printer in the second half of November, we can not present the effects of the project in this report. They will not become visible until 2004.
Partners
Roma Association of Slovenia European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), Budapest
Funding
The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Slovenia
Timetable
Feb. - Application for funding. Aug. - Signing of the funding contract. Apr. - Dec. Translation, proof-reading, design, printing. Dec. - Distribution
Brief Evaluation
We are certain that the brochures will receive a favourable response from the target population, as the language is plain, they are not overly extensive, and they offer handy advice for recognising discrimination and organizing Roma activists.
55 Evaluation will not be possible until 2004, which is a consequence of complications we had finding a Romani translator. This is the biggest downside to the project: we were only able to publish the brochures in Slovene, while our plans included a translation into Romani. Should we find a suitable translator, there is a possibility of publishing these brochures in Romani in 2004. This may also depend on the response to the Slovene editions.
56 CENTER FOR CULTURAL POLICY
57 Apart from the projects mentioned below, we succeeded in applying for the »Economics of Culture« project, which we will carry out in collaboration with the Center for International Cooperation. The project began in November 2003 and will conclude in October 2004.
In some projects, the Center for Cultural Policy acted as a partner to other NGO's. We co-organized a symposium on the socioeconomic situation of women in the processes of globalisation, which took place in October within the City of Women festival. Along with IG Kultur Osterreich, a partner organization from Austria, we applied for funding of »The Grand Narratives of CultureEurope« with the EU Culture 2000 program. We will receive a reply in 2004. 2004 will also see the conclusion of the project of evaluation of Kultura Nova program, which we are carrying out at the invitation of the European Cultural Foundation from Amsterdam. Among partner projects, we would particularly like to mention the »Tone, Watch Out, a Bullet!« anti-war project, carried out in collaboration with Stripburger and Slon and Sadež cabaret group. The project consists of the »Slon and Sadež« CD and the »Warburger« comic book anthology, which form a unique alternative and popular cultural response to the vanity of the government promoting the accession of Slovenia to NATO, and to belittling attitudes of the elite towards any kind of dissent. We concluded the project on Sep. 11 with a joint event at Menza pri koritu, Metelkova.
58 Reading Cultures in the Newly Established Publishing Conditions: empirical findings, analysis of the situation and recommendations for the development of Slovene publishing policies.
Head of Project
Aldo Milohnić, M.A
Project Team
Dr. Maja Breznik, Janez Jug, M.A., Dr. Silva Novljan, Jasna Babič (administrative help)
Aims and Goals
The research group, using empirical findings, attempted to demonstrate to what extent the publishers, adapting their programs to marketplace standards, satisfy the need for the book as a »national asset«. Parallel to that, we carried out research to find out whether non-profit and funded publishing programs are successful in filling the gap. We concluded the research by comparing our findings to distribution methods and reading figures, paying particular attention to sales and reading figures in public libraries (i.e. what books the libraries are buying and how many people read them).
Content
In the ten years of separating profit and non-profit publishing programs, publishing houses formed their program strategies. Therefore, the research group studied reading cultures nurtured by either strategies. On one hand, we needed to find out to what extent the publishing market takes care of the book as a national asset, as a way of providing literacy and education, and on the other, the possible gaps had to be compared to the analysis of reading cultures supported by funded programs.
59 Methods
Empirical methods (updating databases using the data acquired from the COBISS library database, direct poll-taking at publishing houses, comparisons), qualitative methods (study of relevant literature), policy analysis.
Events
Multiple meetings with the Ministry of Culture representatives. Presentation of results within the »Publishing Academy«, which took place in November as a part of the Slovene Book Fair.
Results
We presented the findings of the research in an extensive expert report, which we submitted to the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, and to a few interested experts. We plan to publish the report in a specialized book series. In the research period, the researchers Dr. Maja Breznik and Dr. Silva Novljan published several articles related to the project topic.
Effects
We will not be able to report on the effects until 2004, as the project findings were made public at the end of November. We certainly expect the findings of the project to influence future decisions of publishing policy makers in Slovenia, particularly the Ministry of Culture, which commissioned the project in the first place.
Partners
Home institutions of the researchers involved IZUM (Institute of Information Science)
Funding
Ministry of Culture; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport
60 Timetable
2002 was mostly spent gathering empirical data. The IZUM Institute created databases, based on records gathered from the COBISS electronic library database. In 2003, the research group shaped the gathered data into an interpretable form. We concluded the research in October by submitting the final report, and presented it to the public at the Slovene Book Fair in November.
Brief Evaluation
The project was a success. We completed the research report and submitted it to the financiers (see “Funding”) a month prior to the date set in the contract. The ministries responded to the report in a favourable manner. The presentation of the research at the »Publishing Academy« was also successful. Researcher Dr. Maja Breznik actively participated in the public debate (in Mladina and Delo) on library compensations to authors whose books are checked out of libraries. A weakness of the project was the amount of time consumed by the quantitative part of the research, which ate into the time available for final analyses and recommendations. In spite of this, the final report did not suffer and was in fact submitted a whole month prior to the agreed deadline.
61 Cultural Education
Head of Project
Majda Hrženjak, PhD [email protected]
Project Team Member
Valerija Vendramin, researcher, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana
Aims and Goals
We based our research project on the assumption that in Slovenia cultural education is an undefined and an inarticulate field of study. This does not mean that there is a lack of activity in cultural education, but rather that the activity lacks systematic placement, encouragement, and consideration in the cultural sphere. In our environment, tying culture to education is more or less a matter of coincidence and individuals’ good will. Therefore, the project aims to establish conceptual, methodological, political and practical foundations for emergence of expert discussions on cultural education, as well as its practical implementation.
Content
The project spans there stages. The first includes a conceptual analysis of cultural education, the second features an elaboration of cultural education on a principal, political level, through policy analysis, while during the third stage we pointed out »good practices« of cultural education, turning to Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, for examples.
Methods
Our work is based on three methods: conceptual analysis, policy analysis and »good practice« examples. Apart from these basic methods, we paid a study visit to
62 relevant Swedish institutions, concerned with cultural education of children. A considerable amount of project time was spent gathering material online.
Events
/
Results
Two independent chapters in the book: Blatnik, M.M., ed., Beremo skupaj. Priročnik za spodbujanje branja. Ljubljana, Mladinska knjiga, 2003, 73 - 77; A four article theme-block on cultural education in the Šolsko polje magazine. Publication of the entire research report on the Ministry of Culture website. Eight lectures for kindergarten teachers, comprising a lecture module titled »Kindergarten, inter-culturality, diversity«.
Effects
Cultural education was included in the draft of the national cultural program as a priority. Opportunity to carry out an evaluation study. Talks with the Ministry of Culture on the continuation of development and research work related to cultural education.
Partners
Ministry of Culture; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; Educational Research Institute
Funding
Ministry of Culture; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; the Peace Institute.
Timetable
Jan., Feb. - Study of material, conceptualization of results Mar., Apr, May. - Final report preparation
63 May. - Project conclusion
Brief Evaluation
We achieved our basic goal of establishing continued activity related to development and research of cultural education. The Ministry of Culture expressed strong interest for further collaboration, so we continue our work with an evaluation study. For 2004, we are planning a more extensive project to continue our work in the field. We assess that the Šolsko polje magazine is providing satisfactory coverage of this topic, while the general public does not display any significant interest for cultural education. We feel that the Ministry of Culture is the proper authority for encouraging public interest in these matters.
64 CENTER FOR GENDER AND POLITICS
65 Policy Frames and Implementation Problems – the Case of Gender Mainstreaming
Head of Project
Vlasta Jalušič, PhD, Assist. Prof. [email protected]
Project Team
Maruša Gortnar, M.A., researcher Barbara Žaucer, researcher Mojca Sušnik, researcher Alenka Švab, PhD, Assist. Prof., consultant Mojca Pajnik, M.A., consultant Špela Veseljak, consultant Majda Hrženjak, PhD, researcher and coordinator
Aims and Goals
"Gender mainstreaming" – defined by the Council of Europe as (re)organization, improvement, development and evaluation of political processes in a way that makes the perspective of gender equality an integral part of all policies – is a strategy of equal opportunity politics, which is still in its formative stages. The project aims to devise an interdisciplinary and international study on how the strategy and equal opportunities policy formation processes are carried out.
Content
We aim to conduct a comparative study of gender inequality as a problem of policy formation processes (we plan to reconstruct the policy formation in four separate fields: family policy, policy towards the violence perpetrated against women, policy towards women's political participation, and policy towards prostitution; we will compare findings from six countries: Slovenia, Austria, Spain, Greece, Hungary
66 and the Netherlands), and to develop the appropriate methodology for singling out inconsistencies in the formation of equal opportunity policies.
Methods
"Frame" analysis, discursive analysis, comparative analysis, use of the Kwalitan computer software for the purposes of qualitative analysis.
Events, Results, Effects
Mageeq is a three-year research project. Its first year was spent conceptualizing the problems, mastering the research methods and collecting materials. No additional goals were set for the initial year.
Partners
IWM, Austria University of Nijmegen, Netherlands Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Central European University, Hungary University of Athens, Greece
Funding
5th Framework Programme of the EU (FP5); The Peace Institute
Timetable
The initial six months were spent tackling conceptual and methodological issues, which resulted in a project manual. The following six months were spent collecting materials, learning how to use the Kwalitan computer software, conducting a pilot analysis and compiling the chronology (reconstruction) of events relevant to individual fields.
Brief Evaluation
Discussion of the project's goals and ways of accomplishing them showed that no stage of this project can ever be concluded. We are continually making
67 methodological and conceptual improvements, selecting better materials and deepening our analyses. Also, it became apparent that the analyses will require more time than initially anticipated. The difficult nature of the project is partly due to an almost complete lack of debate, literature and events related to gender mainstreaming in Slovenia. That is why (and because this is an EU strategy) we expect the project to attract considerable public interest, once it has progressed.
68 Sociological Conceptual Analysis of Family Policies in Slovenia from the Perspective of Social Change – postdoctoral project
Head of Project
Alenka Švab, PhD, Assist. Prof. [email protected]
Project Team
Individual postdoctoral project
Aims and Goals
To identify the conceptual shortcomings of family policies in light of social change. To identify relevant characteristics (applicable to the Slovene context) by analysing conceptual frameworks of and the latest trends in family policies in the EU member states. To form suggestions for conceptual improvement of family policies.
Content
The conceptual basis of family policies and the measures stemming from it often disregard the latest family trends. This project includes an analysis of changes in the family in the West, a conceptual analysis of familiy policy (as follows from the Resolution) from the perspective of Slovene trends, a selection of case studies (comparison to the EU) and formation of suggestions for conceptual changes of family policy in Slovenia.
Methods
Study of expert (sociological) literature regarding social change, content analysis of gathered documentation, analysis of statistical and demographical data, conceptual comparative analysis of family policies in EU member states (indentifying the best practices in individual fields), policy analysis.
69 Events
/
Results
Editor(s): Sevenhuijsen, S., Švab, A. (ed.). 2003. Labyrinths of Care: the Relevance of the Ethics of Care Perspective for Slovenian Social Policy. Ljubljana: Peace Institute. Švab, A. (ed.) 2003. Etika skrbi – teorija, politike, prakse. In: Teorija in praksa, 6. Original scientific articles: Švab, A. 2003. »Kako skrbna je država? Konceptualizacija skrbi v družinski politiki v Sloveniji«. V: Sevenhuijsen, S., Švab, A. (ed.). Labyrinths of Care: the Relevance of the Ethics of Care Perspective for Slovenian Social Policy. Ljubljana: Peace Institute. Švab, A. 2003. »Skrb med delom in družino: koncept usklajevanja dela in družinskih obveznosti v družinski politiki«. Teorija in praksa, 2003, 6. Ongoing: Preparation of the analysis of parenthood policy, using the »Trace« method, under the Tracing Social Policies in Accession Countries follow-up project. (Analysis of the Resolution on the basis of family policy formation and the law on parent custody and family income.)
Partners
/
Funding
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport
Timetable
1. analysis of the Resolution on the basis of family policy formation in the Republic of Slovenia, writing the article for the book Labyrinths of Care - Jan. 2003 – Apr. 2003 2. editing Labyrinths of Care – May – Jul 2003
70 3. analysis of family policy through the concept of balancing work and family, writing of the article – Jul. – Aug. 2003 4. editing the theme section for Teorija in praksa - Sep. – Oct. 2003 5. analysis of family policy through parenthood-related concepts (balancing work and family, equal opportunities, etc.) – Nov.– Dec. 2003.
Brief Evaluation
The postdoctoral project is currently in its 21st month (30 were planned), and has proceded according to plan. We continued the analysis of family trends and family policies in EU member states and Slovenia, and directed our efforts at the analysis of indivdual cases or family policy segments (balancing of work and family, parenthood, ethics of care and the possibility of its application to family policy). This year we began publishing the project results. In this sense, we can assess the project to have been a successful one.
71 Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia and Proposals for Policy in the Field - CRP project
Head of Project
Alenka Švab, PhD, Assist. Prof. [email protected]
Project Team Member
Roman Kuhar, M.A., researcher
Aims and Goals
The project spans the research of the family and social contexts of gay and lesbian lifestyles in Slovenia, and aims to form proposals for policy in this field.
Content
The project is proceeding according to plan. In 2003 we carried out the following activities: questionnaire preparation, workshop execution and interviewer training, interviews, database preparation, statistical treatment of data, summary preparation, preliminary data analysis, presentation of findings to the expert and general public, presentation and participation in public debates regarding the law on registration of same-sex partnerships.
Methods
Study of expert literature (methodology and GLBT studies), quantitative research (conducting polls), qualitative sampling (using the snow-ball method), quantitative treatment of data (SPSS), data analysis.
Events
Round table discussions, forums
72 Oct. 16 2003. Kuhar R. 2003. "Law on the same-sex partnerships". Round table discussion. Ljubljana: Student arena. Oct. 29 2003. Kuhar, R. 2003. Forum »Slovenia, the EU and the Same-Sex Oriented«. Ljubljana: Organized by the Peace Institute and the Europe Center. Ljubljana. (forum moderator and organizer). Oct. 29 2003. Švab, A. 2003. »Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia«. Presentation of preliminary data. Contribution to the »Slovenia, the EU and the Same-Sex Oriented« forum. Organized by the Peace Institute and the Europe Center. Nov. 3. 2003.Švab, A., Kuhar, R. 2003. »Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia«. Round table discussion. Ljubljana: Philosophical faculty.
Nov. 28 2003.Švab, A. 2003. "Law on Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships ". »Studio ob 17h« radio broadcast. Ljubljana: Radio Slovenija.
Results
Conferences Nov. 9-Nov. 10 2003. Švab, A., Kuhar, R. 2003. "Research of the 'Hidden' Social Minorities: The research on the Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia ". A paper presented at the »Social Movements and Civil Society Today« sociological conference, Portorož. Nov. 6-Nov. 8 2003. Švab, A., Kuhar, R. 2003. "Everyday Life of Gays and Lesbians in Slovenia: preliminary survey results". International conference "Participation Opportunities: Perspectives for Inclusion of marginalized Groups". Ljubljana, organized by the Peace Institute.
Original articles Švab, A., Kuhar R. 2003. "Raziskovanje 'skritih socialnih manjšin': primer raziskave o družinskih in socialnih kontekstih življenja istospolno usmerjenih v Sloveniji". In: Kramberger, A. (ed.). Družbena gibanja in civilna družba danes, (Novice SSD). Ljubljana: Slovensko sociološko društvo, 2003, 22-25.
73 Švab, A., Kuhar, R. 2003. Summary of the quantitative portion of the research on the »Family and Social Contexts of Gay and Lesbian Lifestyles in Slovenia« Ljubljana, Peace Institute.
Interviews and statements Sep. 13 2003. Roman Kuhar, radio interview (Life of Gays and Lesbians in Slovenia), Radio Kranj. 2003. Alenka Švab, statement for Val 202. Nov. 10 2003. Roman Kuhar, statement for Studio City. RTV Slovenia. Nov. 28 2003. Alenka Švab, studio discussion, »Studio ob 17h« broadcast, SLO 1 radio station (interview was conducted by Jernej Verbič).. 2003. Interview for an article, conducted by Mitja Blažič for the Saturday supplement of Delo.
Effects
Project results are being used by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs in the preparation of the Law on Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships. Two students will use the results of the research in their diploma assignments. The head of the project is acting as a mentor to a sociology student, preparing her diploma assignment for the Faculty of Social Sciences. NGO’s use the research results in their work.
Partners
/
Funding
Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; OSI NY (in 2003)
Timetable
Jan.-Mar. - 2003. Questionnaire preparation Mar. 25 2003 - Interviewer training
74 Apr.–Jul. 2003 - Interviewing Jul. 2003 - Database preparation Aug.-Sep. 2003 - Data treatment Sep. 2003 - Preliminary analysis preparation Sep.-Nov. - Public presentation of data (conferences, organization of public events and participation in public events) Sep.-Dec. 2003 - Preparation for the qualitative part of the research (in-depth interviews, focus groups)
Brief Evaluation
The project can be termed a success due to the following factors: it is proceeding according to plan; some plans have even been surpassed (we researched a sample twice as large as originally expected; research results were met with considerable public response (a number of media statements, invitations to debates and round table discussions); the research data are being used in the process of formation and adoption of the Law on Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships; our public appearances received favourable reviews (particularly the E-E Participation Opportunities conference).
75 Migrations and Human Trafficking
Head of Project
Simona Zavratnik Zimic, PhD [email protected]
Team Members
Mojca Pajnik, M.A., researcher at the Peace Institute Petra Lesjak-Tušek, researcher, Peace Institute associate Tatjana Pezdir, postgraduate student, Peace Institute associate Alenka Malenšek, Head of the IOM Mission in Ljubljana Urša Kavčič, IOM Ljubljana
Aims and Goals
The project aims to analyze the phenomenon of human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Our basic goal is to prepare a study of the Slovene environment, having established that there have been no coherent studies of this phenomenon done in Slovenia, even though similar studies exist in most Eastern European and Balkan countries.
Content
Our research mainly focuses on the following questions: What is the situation and the extent of human trafficking in the Slovene environment (we pose the hypothesis that Slovenia not only represents a transit area, but is both a point of origin and a finishing point of human trafficking routes)? What are the responses from various publics and what are the policies for prevention of human trafficking in the national environment? We are interested in both governmental and nongovernmental activities.
76 What are the perceptions and the popular conceptions of human trafficking (public opinion, high-school students)? We feel that the knowledge concerning this problem is fairly superficial, due to lack of information and awareness.
Methods
We used the following data gathering techniques: questionnaires for NGO’s, governmental and intergovernmental organizations in Slovenia; questionnaires for NGO's, governmental and intergovernmental organizations abroad; interviews with representatives of government institutions, experts, and Slovene NGO's; analysis of media reports; a poll conducted among high-school population; representative poll (cross-section of public opinion); interviews with victims of human trafficking.
Events
Oct. 9 2003. Press conference to promote the book »Where in the puzzle: trafficking from, to and through Slovenia: assessment study«, IOM Ljubljana, 2003. Europe Center, Ljubljana. Education seminars, organized by IOM in collaboration with the British embassy: »Building Capacities in the Field of Human Trafficking Prevention in Slovenia« for media (Oct. 9), teachers (Oct. 10), governmental organizations (Oct. 16) and NGO's (Oct. 17). Nov. 17 2003. Peace Institute Forum »Human Trafficking – Exploitation of Women by the Sex Industry«, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana.
77 Results
Publication of »Where in the puzzle: trafficking from, to and through Slovenia: assessment study«, by Simona Zavratnik Zimic, Urša Kavčič, Mojca Pajnik and Petra Lesjak-Tušek, IOM Ljubljana, 2003.
Effect
The publication has been widely reported by the Slovene media: Delo (Oct.10), Dnevnik (Oct.10), Večer (Oct.10), Val 202 (Oct. 9), Studio City (Oct. 13 and Dec. 15), Radio Kranj (Oct. 9), Svobodna misel (Nov. 14), STA (Oct. 9), etc.
Funding
Peace Institute; IOM Ljubljana
Timetable
Throughout 2003
Brief Evaluation
The project contributed significantly to the public debate on the issue of human trafficking in Slovenia which included a wide range of participants: governmental, intergovernmental and nongovernmental institutions, and various experts. The project problematized the issue and increased awareness of both the general public and the expert public (governmental organizations, teachers, etc.). Also, the project resulted in recommendations for further activities in the fields of human trafficking prevention, victim protection, and increasing public awareness. At this stage, the project represents a collection of basic information, which will serve as a basis for further research.
78 Sexual Citizenship
Head of Project
Roman Kuhar, M.A. [email protected]
Project Team
Individual doctoral project
Aims and Goals
The doctoral project aims to ascertain how the category of sexuality influences citizenship, which, at first glance, seems to be a non-problematic legal category promoting equality. However, a deeper insight reveals that citizenship is strongly dependent on one’s gender as well as their sexual orientation. In this context, the project also aims to rethink the current gay and lesbian movement and politics (the issue of registered partnership) in both Slovenia and the EU.
Content
The research stems from the criticism of the »queer« theory of assimilation tendencies in the current West European and American gay and lesbian movement, which is, while attempting to ensure equality by infiltrating heterosexual institutions, not questioning them, but is in fact (for instance by demanding homosexual marriages) providing them with additional support. Content units: sexuality, the question of essentialism and constructivism (Foucault, Weeks), privacy / the public and sexuality, gay and lesbian politics / sexual politics / identity politics, the »queer« criticism of gay and lesbian politics / criticism of heteronormativism, queer politics, sexual citizenship, everyday life of gays and lesbians (results of the PI research).
79 Methods
Expert literature Analysis of materials Quantitative and qualitative methodology (research on everyday life of gays and lesbians in Slovenia)
Funding
Ministry of Education, Science and Sport
Timetable
Study of relevant literature and data gathering: Sep. 2003 – Study visit, CEU, Budapest: Nov. 2003 – Mar. 2004 Writing the thesis: Mar. 2004 – Nov. 2004
Brief Evaluation
The research is in its initial stage and has therefore yet to produce any results. We formed the concept and gathered the relevant literature.
80 EAST EAST COOPERATION CENTER
81 The Use of the Ethics of Care Perspective in Social Policy
Head of Project
Mojca Pajnik, M.A. [email protected]
Project Team
Dr. Alenka Švab, Assist. Prof., coordinator of the content section Prof. Selma Sevenhuijsen, workshop moderator Dr. Vesna Leskošek, Assist. Prof., assistance with workshop conception Živa Humer, project assistant
Aims and Goals
The workshop aimed to present the basic concepts of the ethics of care, and to present and apply the »Trace« method to social policy related documents. An additional goal was to attract partners from EU accession candidates.
Content
The two-day workshop was divided into the theoretical and the practical section. During the theoretical section, the participants were informed of the basic concepts of the ethics of care, and of the conception of care as a democratic practice and an element of citizenship. During the practical section, Selma Sevenhuijsen presented the »Trace« method, which the participants used to analyze the National Program for Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion (published in 2001 by the Ministry of Work, Family and Social Affairs).
82 Methods
The two-day workshop took the shape of lectures and debates in the morning, while the practical section was carried out in small groups (two or three participants per group).
Events and Activities
The international workshop took place in the City Turist hotel in Ljubljana, Jan. 14- Jan. 15.
Results
Participants were familiarized with the basic concepts of the ethics of care and were trained in the use of the »Trace« method in analyzing social policy related documents.
Effects
Further collaboration via e-mail; workshop. The final result of this project will be the publication of a collection of documents, analyzed using the »Trace« method.
Partners
East East Cooperation Center, Peace Institute Prof. Selma Sevenhuijsen, University of Utrecht
Funding
East East Cooperation Center, Peace Institute
Timetable
Stage 1: preparation → Oct. 2002 – Jan. 2003 Stage 2: seminar execution → Jan. 14- Jan. 15 2003. Stage 3: evaluation → Feb. 2003.
83 Brief Evaluation
We succeeded in accomplishing the aims and goals of the project. Participants gained new knowledge and experience in the field of the ethics of care and the use of the »Trace« method, and established contacts for future work. The favourable response of the participants is evident from evaluation questionnaires, in which they graded the content, the structure and the organization of the workshop (on the scale of 1 to 5, the average grade of all graded elements was 4.51). Participants stated that they wished the workshop had lasted longer, and that more time had been spent on discussions, group work and the structuring of future cooperation.
84 The First Regional Seminar on Human Rights Education for Teachers and Activists from SE Europe
Head of Project
Mojca Pajnik, M.A. [email protected]
Project Team
Alenka Bregant, EIP - School for Peace, project coordinator Aleksander Bregant, EIP - School for Peace, project assistant Živa Humer, Peace Institute, project co-coordinator
Aims and Goals
This five-day seminar aimed to present the basic concepts of human rights, to educate and exchange experience in the field of methodological and pedagogic approaches to human rights education. An additional aim was the establishment of a network of teachers and NGO representatives working in the field of human rights education in SE Europe.
Content
The seminar joined theoretical and practical aspects of human rights education, focusing on the content of human rights, as well as mechanisms of human rights protection. Discussions were centered around forming a curriculum within the school system (methodological approaches, role of the teacher). Participants reflected on the perception of borders, migrations and teaching human rights, pointing out the case of migrants. The issues of homosexuality and homophobia were singled out, which resulted in the discussion on sex discrimination within the school system.
85 Methods
The seminar took the form of lectures, discussions, work in small groups, and individual presentations of participants on their activities in the field of human rights.
Events and Activities
The international seminar took place at the Tabor hotel in Maribor, Feb. 24-Feb. 28 2003.
Media coverage: Feb. 24 2003 → report in the central POP TV news program, report in Odmevi, SLO 1, report in the regional news program, RTS, report on the regional TV Maribor station, interviews with Alenka Bergant, Matjaž Hanžek and participants in the central news program of the SLO 1 radio station, live report for Studio City, live report for Radio Center, report on the event on STR. Feb. 25. 2003 → article in Večer »Slabo poznavanje človekovih pravic« (by Katrin Mlakar), report on RTS, live interview with Alenka Bregant and Yves Lador (an EPI International lecturer) in the Živa program on TV Maribor. Feb. 26. 2003 → articles on the front page of Večer »Zavest o svojih in tujih pravicah« in »Dobra zakonodaja ni dovolj« (by Katrin Mlakar).
The event was announced on the EIP School for Peace (Šola za mir) website, the Peace Institute website, the EIP International website and the Council of Europe education website. Reports on the event appeared on the Slowwwenija.com web portal and the Slovene Press Agency website.
Results
Exchange of experience, knowledge and contacts of seminar participants. The event resulted in the establishing of an active electronic network, primarily for the purposes of distribution of information and ideas on collaboration, and of knowledge concerning human rights.
86 Effects
Further collaboration of participants through the network.
Partners
EIP Slovenia – Šola za mir (School for Peace) Council of Europe – Education for Democratic Citizenship project East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute.
Funding
EIP International – World Association of Schools as Instruments of Peace; Council of Europe - Education for Democratic Citizenship project; East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute
Timetable
Stage 1: preparation → Sep. 2002 - Feb. 2003. Stage 2: execution → Feb. 24. – Feb. 28 2003. Stage 3: evaluation and final report → Mar.-Apr. 2003.
Brief Evaluation
The international seminar was attended by 55 participants from 17 countries, who took active part in the discussions, group work and presentations of projects and organizations with which they are associated. They emphasized the necessity of bridging the gap between theory and practice in the field of human rights, particularly regarding the human rights implementation. The participants also took active part in the evaluation of the seminar. They were given evaluation questionnaires after the conclusion of each day's activities. This enabled daily evaluation, resulting in a detailed appraisal of the five-day seminar. The evaluation process revealed a desire for participation in similar seminars and workshops in the future, and for collaboration through the electronic network.
87 Public Policy Round Table Discussion and Workshop (Public Policy and Think Tanks)
Heads of Project
Mojca Pajnik, M.A. [email protected] Mojca Sušnik [email protected]
Project Team
Mojca Pajnik, M.A., program director Mojca Sušnik, program coordinator Živa Humer, project assistant
Aims and Goals
The international workshop was organized for the Peace Institute associates and their foreign partners. Its purpose was to advance the knowledge on the meaning of policies and to acquaint the participants with the cycle of policy formation and the process of communication on policies. The main idea was to gain knowledge to be used in future projects that include the dimension of policy formation.
Content
The workshop was divided into two sections: the first day was spent upgrading the knowledge on the process of policy formation, paying special attention to the role of think tanks. The formation process does not encompass only the goals of a particular activity; the stress is on the process as a whole. The first day's workshop activities were directed by Jose de Barros of the Public Policy Centres Initiative, Budapest, and Jacek Kucharczyk of the Institute for Public Affairs, Warsaw. The second day began with a project plan presentation by one of the participating groups, which was followed by presentations of institutes by participants from
88 individual countries. The afternoon of the second day was spent working on future projects in theme groups. There were six theme groups: minority media, civil society, human trade, Europe and USA, ethics of care and the Workers' Punk University.
Methods
The two-day workshop took the form of lectures, discussions and a practical section, during which a project plan was drafted, while the second day was spent hearing individual institute presentations and working on projects in theme groups.
Events and Activities
The international workshop took place at the Kompas hotel in Kranjska Gora, May 29-May 31 2003.
Results
Conception of future projects (most of which will begin in 2004).
Effects
Continued collaboration of participants on projects
Partners
Public Policy Centres Initiative, Budapest East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute.
Funding
Public Policy Centres Initiative, Budapest; East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute
Timetable
Stage 1: preparation → Mar. – May 2003 Stage 2: workshop execution → May 29 – May 31 2003
89 Stage 3: evaluation → Jun. 2003
Brief Evaluation
The international workshop succeeded in accomplishing its intended goals. In the first day, the participants improved their knowledge on the policy formation process and the role of think tanks. The groups spent the practical section writing project drafts, which they later presented. The second day was spent actively participating in institute presentations and in the theme groups, working on future joint projects. The participants actively participated in the evaluation of the workshop. After the conclusion of first day's activities, they evaluated the first day of the workshop, while on the second day they evaluated the workshop as a whole. The evaluation questionnaires attest to the participants' satisfaction with the content, the structure and the organization of the workshop (on the scale of 1 to 5, the average grade, given to the evaluated elements, was 4.25).
90 Participation Opportunities: Perspectives for Inclusion of Marginalized Groups
Heads of Project
Mojca Pajnik, M.A. [email protected] Mojca Sušnik [email protected]
Project Team
Mojca Pajnik, M.A., program director Mojca Sušnik, program coordinator
Aims and Goals
At the seminar, we discussed the situation of various marginalized groups from the viewpoint of human rights. By presenting case studies we reflected upon the situation of migrants, gays, lesbians and the handicapped. We were interested in the human rights situation in the selected EU accession candidates, and how it is compared to the current EU legal standards. We thought through various aspects of political, cultural and social participation. We also discussed integration, i.e. the political and social inclusion of marginalized groups.
Content
The seminar was rich in various case studies related to members of various marginalized groups: migrants, the same-sex oriented, and the handicapped.
Methods
The three-day seminar was spent listening to contributions by participants from selected countries, always followed by lengthy discussions.
91 Events and Activities
The international seminar took place at the City Turist hotel in Ljubljana, Nov. 6- Nov. 8 2003.
Results
The project is dedicated primarily to migrants, the same-sex oriented and the handicapped.
Effects
Further participation in projects
Media coverage:
We appeared at two press conferences: one to represent the entire LUPA festival (Nov. 4 2003), and another, held specifically by our seminar attendees (Nov. 7 2003).
interview, granted by the participants Roman Kuhar, M.A., and Kurt Krickler to the Studio City program, TV Slovenia (reporter: Alenka Kotnik) interview granted by the participant Arturas Tereskinas to Delo (reporter: Sonja Merljak) interview granted by the participant Tomasz Kitlinski to the VAL 202 radio station (reporter: Tadej Košmrlj) Radio Slovenia (reporter: Mateja Železnikar) STA (reporter: Tjaša Doljak)
The event was announced on the Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs website (as a part of the LUPA festival) and on the Peace Institute website.
92 Partners
Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs in collaboration with YHD – Handicap Theory and Culture Association ŠKUC-LL (Lesbian Lilith)
Funding
East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute
Timetable
Stage 1: preparation Æ Jan. – Sep. 2003 Stage 2: seminar preparation Æ Sep. - Nov. 2003 Stage 3: seminar execution Æ Nov. 6-Nov. 8 2003 Stage 4: preparation of the collection of selected texts Æ Nov.–Dec. 2004
Brief Evaluation
The international seminar succeeded in accomplishing its intended goals. Participants took active part in the evaluation of the seminar. They were given evaluation questionnaires upon the conclusion of each day's activities. First, they graded the contents of the seminar and the presentations. In the end, they graded the contents of the seminar, as well as its structure and organization. Participants were evidently satisfied, as the average grade of all evaluated elements reached 2.8 on a scale of 1 to 5. The organizers failed to accomplish the goal of providing three experts, each specializing in one of the focused-on marginalized groups, to lay out an overview of the situation compared to the EU legal standards (only one ended up participating). We were hoping to get seminar's contents evaluated by these experts. Instead, we prepared short conclusions to the seminar with the participants. In 2004, we plan to publish a collection of texts on the topics discussed.
93 Contemporary Citizenship. The Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion II (Is There a Chance for a Post-national Citizenship?)
Heads of Project
Mojca Pajnik, M.A. [email protected] Mojca Sušnik [email protected]
Project Team
Mojca Pajnik, M.A., program director Mojca Sušnik, program coordinator
Aims and Goals
The purpose of the conference was to analyze the significance of modern citizenship concepts to the political equality of citizens and various minorities. We wanted to reflect on the limitations of contemporary citizenship concepts and practices. We discussed the politics of inclusion in terms of membership, but also the active citizenship, active inclusion and the political responsibility of citizens themselves.
Content
The conference was divided into three main sections: the first was concerned with conceptual issues, the second was devoted to the EU and the possibilities of post- national citizenship, while the third one was dedicated to the presentation of case studies of inclusion/exclusion policies, and analyses of visible/invisible exclusion mechanisms and strategies in selected countries.
94 Methods
The two-day conference took the form of presentations given by participants from selected countries, which were followed by discussions.
Events and Activities
International conference took place at the Tabor student home in Ljubljana, Dec. 5.Dec. 6 2003.
Results
The project is targeted particularly at NGO's and academics in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as government officials, policy makers and, last but not least, the excluded groups and individuals.
Effects
Further collaboration on projects
Partners
/
Funding
East East Cooperation Center, the Peace Institute.
Timetable
The project was initiated in 2002 and is nearing completion. It will be concluded in the next year with the publication of collected studies in the Politike Symposion book series.
Brief Evaluation
The international conference was a success. Given the scope of the fields of expertise the participants hailed from, the conference showed just how many viewpoints can be applied to the discussion of citizenship concepts and practices.
95 The participants took active part in the evaluation of the conference. They were given evaluation questionnaires upon the conclusion of the last day's activities. They evaluated two elements: what was good, and what could have been better. The organizers failed to accomplish all the project goals, due to certain circumstances that came about in the course of the project. These changes concern primarily the political context, as Slovenia became an EU accession candidate.
96 CENTER FOR MEDIA POLICY
97 Media Watch
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
1. Sandra Bašić Hrvatin, project team member (areas: legislation, self- regulation, electronic media, communication right, media market and ownership, European media law, education of journalists, international media studies)); 2. Simona Zatler, team member (areas: media law, European media law, press freedom, codes oh ethics, right to correction and reply, authorization, media and courts); 3. Marko Milosavljević, team member (areas: public broadcasting services, journalism, education of journalists); 4. Matevž Krivic, team member (areas: media law, press freedom, codes of ethics, right to correction and reply); 5. Gojko Bervar, team member (areas: journalism, journalistic organizations, codes of ethics, self-regulation, radio, public broadcasting services); 6. Boris Čibej, team member (areas: journalism, international contacts); 7. Kaja Jakopič, team member (areas: media, journalism, public broadcasting services) 8. Aleksandra B. Lubej, team member (areas: media, journalism, media cooperation in SE Europe, education of journalists) 9. Kristina Plavšak, team member (areas: education of journalists international contacts); 10. Jaka Repanšek, team member (areas: international law, media market) 11. Sonja Merljak, team member (areas: media ethics and self-regulation, education of journalists); 12. Lenart Kučić, team member (areas: internet, media market)
98 13. Marko Prpič, team member (areas: internet, public broadcasting systems, radio, education of journalists) 14. Neva Nahtigal, team member (areas: media ethics, rights of journalists, freelance journalists, media and minorities); 15. Tonči A. Kuzmanić, Srečo Dragoš, Mitja Velikonja, authors of studies and analyses; 16. Breda Luthar, Jože Vogrinc, Dejan Verčič, project founders.
Aims and Goals
Media Watch is a project for monitoring, studying and reporting on the work of mass media in Slovenia. We report studies and articles from our fields of research in the Media Watch journal and the bilingual (Slovene-English) Media Watch book series. The project was founded at the end of 1997, and published its first publications in March of 1998. The project joins researchers of media practices, journalists, students and other parties interested in the quality and openness of the Slovene media space, while being itself open to new initiatives and collaborators. The activities of the project are based on the awareness of the significance of journalism and public speech for the creation and maintenance of the openness of public spaces, and for the control over the work of public authorities and the private centers of power.
Content and Methods
We publish the studies and articles on the work of mass media in Slovenia in the Media Watch journal and the bilingual (Slovene-English) Media Watch book series. Members of the Media Watch group agree on a general list of areas and topics, and proceed to monitor and critically analyze them in concert with a number of researchers and journalists. We present the books we publish at press conferences and round table discussions. We send the Media Watch journal and the books, published in the Media Watch book series, to a target audience in Slovenia and abroad (approx. 350 copies). We also send a number of free copies to libraries and sell our books in bookstores. Free copies of the Media Watch journal are delivered to bookstores, libraries,
99 information points and youth clubs. Since 2003, we have been selling the Media Watch journal in bookstores and through subscriptions. The project activities include organizing the Media Watch round table discussions on media policy in Cankarjev dom. Independent experts, government and National Assembly representatives and representatives of media companies and organizations participate in the discussions. Occasionally, the project produces documentaries and other types of media reports. We post all Media Watch publications and information on our events on the Media Watch website (http://mediawatch.si). In 2003, we launched the English version of our website (www.mirovni-institut.si/mediawatch), including English translations of all books, published in the Media Watch book series (www.mirovni- institut.si/mediawatch).
Events
This year's events of the Media Watch project included round table discussions on violence in the media and the media representations of homosexuality, in which editors and journalists of central Slovene media participated, in addition to the authors of the Media Watch studies of these topics and other qualified experts. During the pre-referendum campaign on the accession of Slovenia to NATO and the EU, we released a public statement and called attention to the dubious »co- production« methods of the Government Public Relations and Media Office in producing media content on the accession to NATO with local television stations. After the accession referendum, we sent a letter, detailing the pressures exerted on journalists and the media during the pre-referendum campaign, to ten foreign organizations concerned with the freedoms of press and expression.
Results
In 2003, we published two issues of the Media Watch journal (issues 16 and the double 17/18). The journal spans 80 pages, with the number of articles per issue averaging at 40 to 50. An English supplement is included in each issue. Following the switch of formats in 2002, we have been mailing the free copies wrapped in plastic envelopes. The Media Watch book series saw the publication of two studies:
100 1/ Violence in the Media by Dragan Petrovec, a researcher with the Institute of Criminology; 2/ Media Representations of Homosexuality by Roman Kuhar, a researcher with the Peace Institute. We published a pamphlet titled »A Journalists' Manual for Reporting on Minority Groups«, excerpted from a more extensive manual, published by the Media Diversity Institute, our partnering organization from London. The project operates its own website. All publications and activities of the Media Watch project are archived on the Media Watch website, maintained by Ljudmila. URL: http://mediawatch.ljudmila.org. English version of the website can be found at www.mirovni-institut.si/mediawatch. Also published under the auspices of the media Watch project, was the second Intolerance Monitoring Group Report, prepared and edited in 2003 by Roman Kuhar and Tomaž Trplan. The books, published in the Media Watch book series, were included in the 2003 annual catalogue of quality graphic solutions, published by the American Print magazine.
Effects
The Media Watch publication and round table discussions have resounded strongly with the media community, teachers, and students of journalism and communication sciences in Slovenia. The Media Watch book series has won considerable acclaim abroad. Publications and other Media Watch project activities represent a form of reflection of the media policy and media practices in Slovenia. Collaboration of protagonists as well as analysts from this area of expertise insures the project a lasting influence on the quality and culture of media activities and journalistic work.
Partners
A large number of individuals from Slovenia and other countries take part in the Media Watch project. Slovene collaborators stem from the universities in Ljubljana and Maribor, central media companies, student groups or the ranks of independent media workers. Foreign collaborators come from universities, media institutes and
101 centers, as well as media companies from Croatia, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Great Britain, USA, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Montenegro etc.
Funding
Open Society Institute; Ministry of Education, Science and Sport; Ministry of Culture Media Watch round table discussions are co-funded by the Cankarjev dom cultural and congressional center.
Timetable
Feb. Publication of the second issue of the Intolerance monitoring Group Report. Mar. Publication of Violence in the Media by Dragan Petrovec. Mar-Apr. Publication of issue 16 of the Media Watch journal. Apr. Letter to international press freedom and freedom of expression organizations on the media campaign preceding the referendum on the accession to the EU and NATO. May. Round table discussion on violence in media. Jul-Aug. Publication of Media Representations of Homosexuality by Roman Kuhar. Sep. Round table discussion on the media representations of homosexuality. Sep-Oct. Publication of issue 17/18 of the Media Watch journal. Dec. Publication of the Journalists' Manual for Reporting on Minority Groups.
Brief Evaluation
The Media Watch publication and round table discussions have resounded strongly with the media community, teachers, and students of journalism and communication sciences in Slovenia. The Media Watch book series has won considerable acclaim abroad. The scope and the new format of the Media Watch journal result in high postage costs, making the distribution of the journal more expensive. In 2003, we started selling the journal in bookstores. To this end, the distribution is being handled by our partner Študentska založba. The Delo distribution network assessed that the journal is not interesting for mass placement, and refused to sell it at newspaper
102 stands. The section of the general public that discovered the journal by accident has been encouraging us to sell the journal at newspaper stands and promote it more. On the other hand, a section of the international and domestic expert community has been encouraging us to move toward developing the journal into an international expert or scientific publication. Yet, a gradual decrease in funding has brought about a number of strategic challenges to our publishing efforts, in spite of our attempts to seek governmental funding.
103 Media Ownership
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
Sandra Bašić Hrvatin, associate Lenart J. Kučić, associate Researchers from 17 countries, associates of the SEENPM network research project.
Aims and Goals
The project includes research into media ownership, regulation and deregulation mechanisms in this field, indicators of media concentration and the monopoly situation in the media market, functioning of institutions charged with the prevention of media concentration, and effects of media concentration on the diversity of media content and journalistic autonomy. The project includes an international research project titled »Media markets in SEE and EU accession countries – Mapping ownership patterns in the media and their effects on media freedom and pluralism«, performed by the SEENPM – South East European Network for Professionalisation of the Media – (a network of media centers and institutes), and taking place in Slovenia and sixteen other SE European accession countries. We present our findings to domestic and international public, with the intent of keeping the public informed of, and promoting regulation and control mechanisms for the prevention of ownership concentration and the domination of interests and rights of the public in the media field by the centers of financial or political power.
104 Content and Methods
The project includes the research of media ownership, legislation and institutions in 17 countries, under the supervision of an international project council and utilizing common methodology. During field research, the researchers meet with the project council at a two-day seminar. Once research is concluded, a book will be published, presenting findings from individual countries, a regional comparative study and graphical displays. After the publication of the book, an international conference will be organized, attended by relevant academic personnel, representatives of the media industry, and media policy makers. Additionally, round table discussions will be held in each of the 17 participating countries.
Events
Oct. Participation in the international conference on media ownership in Berlin. Nov. Seminar in Ljubljana, attended by researchers from 17 countries and members of the project council. Nov. Participation in the international conference on media ownership in Zagreb. Nov. Presentation of the SEENPM international research project at the summit of all OSI Foundation media directors in Capetown.
Results
Publication of a series of articles on media ownership in Slovenia and Europe in issues 16 and 17/18 of the Media Watch journal. Writing progress reports and drafting of the final research reports/studies from the 17 countries included in the SEENPM international research. Launching of a website and an e-forum for researchers participating in the international media ownership research.
Effects
Our publications and presentations of research results concerning the media ownership in Slovenia, with which we presented the public in 2002 and 2003, and the identification of the threat of media concentration, contributed to the governmental proposal to modify the Media Act in terms of more efficient
105 regulation. The international research, started by the Peace institute in autumn in 2003, will not yield results until 2004. We anticipate effects in terms of increasing public awareness, among experts and otherwise, and the promotion of regulation and control mechanisms for the prevention of ownership concentration and the domination of interests and rights of the public in the media field by the centers of financial or political power.
Partners
Media centers and institutes included in the SEENPM (South East European Network for Professionalisation of the Media). Open Society Fund Prague, Media Center Lithuania, Media Center Estonia, Media Center Latvia, Kosovo Fund for Open Society, Institute for Communication and Journalism Krakow, Danish School of Journalism, Guardian Foundation, Alison Harcourt of the University of Manchester.
Funding
Open Society Institute;. Fresta (a Danish government program); Guardian Foundation.
Timetable
Mar. Presentation of the research report draft at the annual SEENPM assembly in Ljubljana; Jul. Presentation of the project to the main project financier, OSI Network Media Program, in Budapest. Sep. Selection of researchers; drafting and confirmation of the methodology to be used in the SEENPM research project; Oct. Beginning of research in the 17 countries participating in the SEENPM international research on media ownership; Oct. Participation in the international conference on media ownership in Berlin. Oct. Progress report on the research project before the SEENPM coordination board in Kishniev; Nov. Seminar, held in Ljubljana and attended by researchers from 17 participant states and the SEENPM project council;
106 Nov. Participation in the international conference on media ownership in Zagreb. Nov. Presentation of the SEENPM international research project at the summit of all OSI Foundation media directors in Capetown.
Brief Evaluation
Research of the media ownership demands constant monitoring and updating of databases, activity in various public spheres, and, occasionally, getting into conflict with defenders of the media industry's financial interests. The process of increasing public awareness and preventing media concentration makes apparent the importance of partnership between journalistic and other non-governmental organizations, as well as co-operation with governmental institutions. Also – in light of the international scope of media corporations appearing in Slovenia and similar countries – the management of an international project and the spinning of an international web of researchers and activists is an experience, valuable to the Peace Institute in terms of further research and advocacy in this field.
107 Minority Media in Slovenia
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
Saša Banjanac Lubej, associate Neva Nahtigal, associate Marko Prpič, associate Aljaž Pengov, associate Bojan Golčar, associate Jasminka Dedić, associate Karmen Medica, Peace Institute Fellowship recipient
Aims and Goals
The long-term goal of the project is to research and monitor the situation of minority media in Slovenia and the level of minority rights protection (particularly those of Roma) in the media field. Apart from research activities, the project team is concerned with developing advocatory and educational activities, meant to strengthen the ability of minority communities for media involvement. The research portion of the project includes monitoring minorities' access to central media, activities of minority media, and media reporting on minority-related topics. The project aims also to study the media policy in this field, to suggest and advocate solutions and changes, which would contribute to increasing the amount of access the minorities have to the media. The project started in 2002, when we carried out two international comparative studies. In 2003, we intensified the project by focusing on education of Roma and advocacy of their rights in the media field.
108 Content
We conducted research into the possibilities of starting independent Roma radio production or launching a Roma radio station in Murska Sobota. We helped the Roma Association of Slovenia conceive a project for the development of radio programming, search for financing and political support, acquire the necessary space and equipment, train the personnel, prepare the necessary documentation, seek partnership with local radio stations, with Radio Slovenia and the network of Roma radio stations abroad. We also designed a webpage for the Roma Association of Slovenia. In the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report and the Media Watch journal, we regularly published analyses of the central media reporting on Roma in Slovenia. We discussed this, as well as the access of Roma to the media, in radio and television broadcasts, at the Peace Institute workshop on integration policies, and lectures given to foreign students during their study visit to Slovenia. We participated in an international conference on Roma media. In collaboration with the European Roma Rights Center, we carried out a study on the situation of Roma living in Slovenia with no citizenship or identification papers. We prepared an information leaflet on this subject and organized a briefing for journalists, where we presented the study results and individual life stories of members of the Roma community, who had suffered human rights violations. In the context of the project, we presented an initiative to carry out a study on media rights of minorities from former Yugoslavia living in Slovenia. We made plans for an international conference on media and minorities, to be organized in 2004 in collaboration with the East East project.
Methods
Comparative studies, field research, case studies, local, regional and international consultations, publication and distribution of articles, studies and analyses, educational workshops, mentorship, advocacy.
109 Events
Meeting of representatives of the Roma Association of Slovenia, the governmental Office for Nationalities, the Murski val radio station, and the Peace Institute, regarding the possibilities of starting Roma radio production (Apr. 2003). Five workshops on radio journalism for member of the Roma community (May- Nov. 2003). Participation in the international conference on Roma media (Belgrade, Jul. 2003).
Results
Comparative study by Tania Gosselin on the minority media in Slovenia and Hungary, published on the Peace Institute website and in issue 17/18 of the Media Watch journal. It was sent to the director of the Office for Nationalities and to the head of the minorities department at the Ministry of Culture. Articles on the minorities' access to media in issue 16 of the Media Watch journal. A study of the public debate and media coverage of Roma councillors in local elections in Slovenia. Published in the second issue of the Intolerance Monitoring Group Report. Radio articles, produced at the conclusion of workshops organized for members of the Roma community.
Effects
The project sparkled debates and encouraged action within minority communities, particularly in the Roma community, regarding the new mechanisms of these communities' access to media and the launch of a Roma radio station or Roma radio production in Slovenia. It contributed to the training of younger Roma community members for media professions. It stimulated the creators of media content for the Roma minority and the makers of media and minority policies in Slovenia to seek further measures for providing minorities with media access.
110 Partners
Roma Association of Slovenia; Open Society Institute Budapest; Medienhilfe, Zurich; SEEMO/IPI, Vienna; European Roma Rights Center, Budapest; Radio Marš, Radio Kaos, Radio Študent.
Funding
Open Society Institute; Matra program (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).
Brief Evaluation
The project increased the awareness of the importance of media access and media activity within minority communities, particularly the Roma community. Within the general public, and in particular among the creators of minority, cultural and media policies, it provoked thought about further measures in this field. In the future, the project should strive even more to provide minorities – particularly the Roma minority and (unrecognized) minorities from former Yugoslavia – with better access to the media, utilizing strategic research and the methods of advocacy.
111 Media Policy
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
Milada Mirković, Jernej Rovšek (access to public information), Dr. Sandra Bašić Hrvatin, Renata Šribar.
Aims and Goals
In the field of media policy, the Peace Institute develops research, monitoring, publication, advocational and other activities to encourage public debate and influence over passing and altering of legislation, strategic documents and other measures for insuring the freedom of expression and information in Slovenia and abroad.
Content and Methods
Studies and articles published in Media Watch publications and on the Peace Institute website. Public statements and letters to relevant state bodies. Public tribunes, round table discussions, press conferences. Meetings with representatives of relevant state bodies. Coordination of NGO's in Slovenia, participation in international networks of similar organizations.
Events
Writing of amendment proposals to the Access to Information of Public Character bill in the final stages of its passing, in the beginning of 2003. Participation in the session of the National Assembly Committee on Home Affairs.
112 A letter to the minister of information society and meeting with the minister regarding the participation of NGO's in the implementation of the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character. Participation in the round table discussion on the implementation of the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character. Participation in the expert committee on media and audiovisual culture at the Ministry of Culture. Letter to the minister of culture concerning the authentic interpretation of the Media Act regarding pornography.
Results
Media articles on the propositions made by the Peace Institute and other NGO's regarding the Access to Information of Public Character bill. Articles in issues 16 and 17/18 of the Media Watch journal on the Access to Information of Public character bill, on the anti-pornography measures taken by the media inspector, on media-related chapters of the 2004-2007 national culture program, and on initiatives regarding a new RTV Slovenia act.
Effects
The Act on the Access to Information of Public Character, adopted in the beginning of 2003, includes several solutions, attributable to the efforts of the Peace Institute, the Legal Information Centre for NGO's, Alcedo and other NGO's. Certain solutions regarding the control over the enforcement of the act were not included, so the Peace Institute, working with the Legal Information Centre for NGO's, continues its efforts to augment the existing provisions. We attempted to influence media policy by discussing certain documents with the expert committee on media and audiovisual culture (documents discussed: analysis of the situation in the field of media and audiovisual culture, chapters of the national culture program on media and audiovisual culture, the chapter of the national child development program concerning the media, the draft of the audiovisual media act, ordinances on the carrying out of public calls for applications for co-funding of projects concerning audiovisual media, programming development and the development of technical media infrastructure, etc.)
113 We influenced the amending of the Media Act, in regard to the prevention of media concentration and the protection of media plurality and diversity. This success was a direct result of our research findings, published in the Media Watch journal, and the participation of Sandra B. Hrvatin in the process of amending these aspects of the Media Act.
Partners
Legal Information Centre for NGO's, Alcedo, Umanotera and other NGO's and individuals who took part in the preparation and advocacy of NGO propositions concerning the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character.
Funding
Open Society Institute
Timetable
Jan-Feb. Activities related to the discussion on the Access to Information of Public Character bill in the National Assembly; May. Letter to the minister of information society regarding the participation of NGO's in the implementation of the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character; Sep. Meeting with the minister of information society regarding the participation of NGO's in the implementation of the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character; Nov. Participation in the round table discussion, held by the ministry of Information Society and the Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs, on the implementation of the Act on the Access to Information of Public character; Mar-Dec. Participation in the work of the Ministry of Culture expert committee on media and audiovisual culture (discussion of legal propositions, strategic documents, etc.) May. Letter to the minister of culture concerning the authentic interpretation of the Media Act regarding pornography.
114 Sep-Dec. Participation of Sandra B. Hrvatin in the process of amending the aspects of the Media Act having to do with the prevention of media concentration and the protection of media plurality and diversity.
Brief Evaluation
In 2002 and the beginning of 2003, the Peace Institute has – in collaboration with the Fellowship recipient Milada Mirković – headed and coordinated the activities of NGO's concerning the passing of the Act on the Access to Information of Public Character. This activity has proven partly successful and extremely demanding in terms of mechanisms of influencing final legislative solutions and our attempt to include a large number of NGO's into this endeavour. We need to use this experience, and the new-found partnership with other NGO's, in our further efforts in the field of the access to information of public character. Our participation in the Ministry of Culture expert committee on media and audiovisual culture is still merely a formal, rather than a working attempt at the inclusion of civil society into the procedures of creating and implementing media and culture policies. Considering that the committee has been in existence for only a year, we will have to persist in our demands for effective inclusion.
115 Self-regulation in the Media
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
Gojko Bervar, journalist Neva Nahtigal, journalist
Aims and Goals
The project aims to keep the expert public informed of the self-regulation in journalism and the media, and of the systems of media accountability. Representatives of the expert public, based around the Media Watch project, collaborate with the Slovene Association of Journalists in carrying out a number of activities to promote the debate on self-regulation in journalism and the media, on various models of self-regulation and media accountability and on (the necessity of) the institution of the press council in Slovenia.
Content and Methods
The Self-regulation in Media project team members research foreign and domestic self-regulation mechanisms in the media, present them to the expert public, initiate public debate (in the form of round table discussions and journalism evenings) on self-regulation in journalism, and carry out opinion polls among journalists and editors. In the Media Watch periodic publications, we discuss the issues of self- regulation, media accountability, the right to correction and reply in the media, and the need for the establishment of a press council in Slovenia.
116 Events
May 15 2003. Media Watch round table discussion on violence in the media, following the publication of the study by Dragan Petrovec in the Media Watch book series. The discussion was prepared and moderated by Gojko Bervar. Jun. 5-Jun 6 2003. Lectures, given in collaboration with a lecturer from the British organization The PressWise Trust, at a journalism seminar on the reporting on refugees, organized in Ljubljana by UNHCR.
Results
1. A six-article section on self-regulation in the Slovene and foreign media, prepared by Gojko Bervar and Eva Nahtigal in the issue 16 of the Media Watch journal. 2. A section on libel in the media, including for articles on regulatory and self- regulatory treatment of libel in Slovenia and in the European Court of Human Rights, prepared by Gojko Bervar and Eva Nahtigal in the issue 17/18 of the Media Watch journal. 3. Publication of a pamphlet on journalistic reporting on minority groups, conceived as a form of promotion of media self-regulation and accountability in Slovenia.
Effects
To a certain extent, we achieved the desired effect of strengthening the public debate on self-regulation mechanisms and media accountability. The Slovene Association of Journalists and the Union of Slovenian Journalists have strengthened the functioning of the Journalists' Honorary Tribunal and are discussing the possibility of including members of the public into the tribunal. A visit from The Guardian newspaper ombudsman to the Delo publishing house and subsequent talks have triggered plans for instituting such a self-regulation mechanism within Delo. Calling attention to the weaknesses of the arrangement at RTV Slovenija, where an ombudsman has yet to be elected, despite the fact that this institution was established three years ago by the adoption of a new internal code, has yet to bear fruit. The project therefore continues to promote public
117 discussion and research, and keeps the expert and general public informed of the benefits of self-regulation. It continues to act as an advocate for the systems of media accountability, and for media ombudsmen and the press council as self- regulation bodies.
Partners
Prof. Claude-Jean Bertrand AIPCE (Alliance of Independent Press Councils in Europe) The Guardian Foundation
Funding
Open Society Institute
Brief Evaluation
To a certain extent, we achieved the desired effect of strengthening the public debate on self-regulation mechanisms and media accountability. The project therefore continues to promote public discussion and research, and keeps the expert and general public informed of the benefits of self-regulation. It continues to act as an advocate for the systems of media accountability, and for media ombudsmen and the press council as self-regulation bodies.
118 Public Radio and Television
Project Head & Coordinator
Brankica Petković [email protected]
Project Team
Dr. Sandra Bašić Hrvatin, associate Dr. Marko Milosavljević, associate, Fellowship recipient in 2003 Suzana Žilič Fišer, associate
Aims and Goals
The project's aim is to monitor the reform and development of public radio and television in Slovenia compared to other European countries. This includes the research and discussion of related media policies and of development prospects for public radio and television. The project team members monitor and describe cases of system solutions, and point out their positive or negative implications for further development of public radio and television in Slovenia.
Content and Methods
We fulfil the project aims by publishing articles and studies in the Media Watch publications, attending international conferences, organizing round table discussions and conferences, carrying out strategic studies, etc.
Results
Associate Suzana Žilič Fišer conducted a study on Channel Four as a model of public commercial television station. We published the study in issue 16 of the Media Watch journal and supplemented it in issue 17/18 with an interview with the Channel Four director.
119 Under the auspices of the Peace Institute Fellowship program, associate Dr. Marko Milosavljević conducted a study on the effects of public participation in the management of the RTV Slovenia public radio and television service, and included the case of Portugal for comparative purposes. Articles by Dr. Sandra Bašić Hrvatin and Dr. Marko Milosavljević on the (non)transparency of RTV Slovenia's business dealings and the new RTV Slovenia Act were published in issue 17/18 of the Media Watch journal.
Effects
The transformation of public radio and television stations into public radio and television services is one of the key points of media reforms and media development in post-socialist countries. In collaboration with partners and associates – mostly individuals from foreign and domestic academic and journalistic circles – we monitor and analyze the transformation processes of state radio and television services into public ones in post-socialist countries, and keep the public informed of our analyses. We also study the models of public radio and television systems in Western Europe and inform the public of good practices. The project's effects include calling attention to weaknesses within the RTV Slovenia reform, presentation of in-depth and comparative analyses to the expert public and media policy makers in Slovenia, confrontation of opinions and comparisons with foreign models.
Partners
International Federation of Journalists' "Save Public Broadcasting" campaign
Funding
Open Society Institute
120 Journalism Evenings
Project Heads & Coordinators
Ksenija Horvat and Brankica Petković [email protected] , [email protected]
Project Team
Ksenija Horvat, moderator Dušan Rebolj, website correspondent Borut Krajnc, photographer Borut Savski, sound archiver Tomaž Trplan, website administrator Tomaž Lavrič, illustrator Sandra Žuvela, desktop publishing Joško Pajer, Škuc gallery, co-organizer
Aims and Goals
Journalism evenings are international public discussions on journalism and the media, meant to promote journalism as serious, difficult, responsible and occasionally attractive work. They are targeted at journalists and journalism students, as well as the general public. Foreign journalists and media experts participate in the discussions in addition to those from Slovenia, contributing to the exchange of experience, knowledge and opinions on the journalistic work, media liberties, media legislation, journalistic solidarity, etc. Journalism evenings, along with other projects of the Center for Media Policy, are supposed to enhance the quality of journalism in Slovenia and help the development of the professional community and international contacts. Journalism evenings take place at the ŠKUC gallery, Stari trg 21, Ljubljana, Slovenia, partly under the patronage of Klub ŠKUC. From April 1997 until December 2000, this was an OSI Slovenia project. The discussions were moderated
121 by Boris Čibej until spring of 2000. Since January 2001, this has been a Peace Institute project. By January 2004 we have organized 60 journalism evenings, while moderators Boris Čibej and Ksenija Horvat hosted about 120 domestic and foreign journalists and media experts.
Content and Methods
The Journalism Evenings project is rooted in the awareness of the significance of journalism and public speech to the creation and maintenance of openness of social spaces, and to the control over the functioning of public authorities and private centers of power. We organize public discussions on journalism and the media, in which individual topics are treated in a comparative manner. The audiences participate in the discussions. Often, secondary sources – video materials, publications, etc. – are presented in the process of the discussion. The media frequently report on topics and guests of the journalism evenings. Topics and guests of the international public discussions are selected by a project group in collaboration with the Media Watch project group on a semi-annual basis, but these plans may be altered depending on current events, relevant to journalism, the media and the public space. We record the journalism evenings and store the recordings. Occasionally, we transcribe the recordings and publish the transcriptions. We post the summaries of all journalism evenings, along with brief biographies and photographs of the participants, on the Media Watch website.
Events
We organized five journalism evenings in 2003: Dec. 18 2003. Media and Elections in the U.S; guests: Leonard Steinhorn, professor with the American University in Washington, and Mitja Meršol, former editor-in- chief of Delo. Oct. 22. 2003. Slovenia and Croatia in the Media Mirror ; guests: Ilinka Todorovski, editor at TV Slovenia, Bruno Lopandić, commentator for Vjesnik, and Aleksandar Stanković, editor at the Croatian television.
122 May 29. 2003. Serbian Media in the Wake of the Assassination; guests: Snježana Milivojević, professor with the Faculty of Social Sciences, Belgrade, and Dejan Anastasijević, journalist with Vreme, a Belgrade weekly. Mar. 5 2003: Islam and the Media – On Mosques in Slovenia; guests: Bashy Quraishy, President of the European Network Against Racism, Ahmed Pašić, author of a book on Islam in Slovenia, Christian Moe, doctoral candidate on the Islamic religious community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Uroš Slak, editor of the Trenja program on POP TV. Feb. 26 2003. Media and International Politics – World Politics, Who Do You Belong To? guests: Oral Calislar, columnist for Cumhuriyet, a Turkish daily, Dominika Pszczolkowska, journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish daily, and Boris Jaušovec, editor with Večer, a Maribor daily.
Results
The list of journalism evenings, discussion summaries and presentations of the guests are available on the Media Watch project website (http://mediawatch.ljudmila.org). The sound archive is available at the Peace Institute. Only rarely do we transcribe entire discussions.
Effects
International public discussions on journalism and the media, carried out regularly under the heading of the Journalism Evenings project, serve to encourage and develop journalistic responsiveness and the need for analysis and comparison of media practices and developments in Slovenia to those in other countries. The discussions contribute to the development of media and journalistic community in Slovenia, and to the openness of this community to public debate on the issues of professional standards in the media, of political economy and social accountability of the media.
Journalism evenings keep the media public and the general cultural public in Slovenia informed of the issues of freedom of expression and media activities in other countries and regions. Hopefully, this also increases the level of solidarity and openness to cooperation and professional assistance.
123 Partners
In searching for discussion participants we are assisted by the Guardian Foundation and other media centers and institutes abroad. We organize the journalism evenings in the partnership with Klub Škuc, as the events take place at the Škuc gallery in Ljubljana. Our events are announced free of charge by Radio Študent, Delo-Kažipot and the teletext of RTV Slovenia.
Funding
Open Society Institute; City Municipality of Ljubljana (co-funding of the journalism evening on Islam)
Timetable
Feb. Journalism evening on the media in international politics. Mar. Journalism evening on the media and Islam. May. Journalism evening on the media in Serbia following the assassination of Zoran Đinđić. Oct. Journalism evening on the role of the media in the Slovene- Croatian relations. Dec. Journalism evening on the media in the U.S. elections.
Brief Evaluation
The concrete effects of the Journalism Evenings project can not be measured in any short period of time, yet they are visible in the media community's increased sensibility to the issues of media freedoms and to the comparisons of media practices and developments in Slovenia to those abroad, as well as in the inclusion of foreign experts and journalists into discussions, journalistic work and media projects in Slovenia.
124 International Collaboration in the Media Field
Project Heads & Coordinators
Brankica Petković and Aleksandra B. Lubej
Project Team
Aleksandra B. Lubej, SEENPM coordinator, Marko Milosavljević, PhD, assessor of seminars, organized within the SEENPM; Meta Krese, lecturer on photo-journalism for the SEENPM; Rok Kajzer, lecturer on multimedia journalism for the SEENPM.
Aims and Goals
The Peace Institute in Ljubljana (specifically, the Center for Media Policy) is a member of the network of nineteen media centers and similar institutions in SE Europe (the South East European Network for Professionalisation of the Media - SEENPM), supported, under the auspices of the Stability Pact, by the Danish and Swiss governments and the OSI Network. The SEENPM carries out joint seminars, plans the execution of joint media research and exchange programs, and publishes a regional magazine on the internet. By working in collaboration projects in SE Europe, we wish to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and experience in the fields of media reforms and the changing of legislation, as well as media practice analysis, thus accomplishing better solutions, mutual understanding and the use of relevant sources and expertise. Meanwhile, the Peace Institute is developing independent projects of collaboration with media centers, institutes, media companies, researchers and journalists from Eastern and Western Europe and from other regions and continents.
125 Content and Methods
The SEENPM carries out joint seminars, research, international conferences, and put out publications. The Peace Institute sends Slovene journalists and other media employees to seminars and training, organized by other SEENPM members. Journalists attend the TOT (Training of Trainers) schemes, acquiring qualifications for lecturing on various journalistic genres and professional techniques. The Peace Institute, a member of the SEENPM expert committee, is the initiator and the head of the project for the study of media ownership models in SE European countries and their effects on media freedom and accountability in the region. To this end, we are collaborating with media centers and research institutes from SE Europe and the states which will accede to the EU in 2004. We organize meetings of media experts and journalists from the region and take part in the execution and publication of cooperative studies and analyses of media policies in the states of this region. We collaborate with a number of media and journalistic organizations and press freedom organizations outside the SE European region. In collaboration with the London-based Guardian Foundation, we organize study visits of Slovene journalists to the Guardian newspaper company, and of Guardian journalists to Slovene media companies. We also cooperate with a network of NGO's for the access to information of public character, coordinated by the London-based Article XIX, and the Viennese International Press Institute, particularly their SEEMO branch. We collaborate with the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, etc. We have joined the international study on the regulation of broadcasting media, focusing on the public broadcasting media, carried out by the OSI's EUMAP program in twenty Western and Eastern European states.
Events
At the end of February 2003, the Peace Institute organized the annual assembly of the SEENPM, its donors from the OSI, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and its Western European partners.
126 In 2003, approximately ten journalists and other media employees from Slovenia participated in seminars in SE Europe, organized by the SEENPM. Two Slovene journalists – Meta Krese and Rok Kajzer – were trained in lecturing on photo- journalism and multimedia journalism. Upon the completion of training, they conducted a seminar on these topics in Ljubljana, organized by the Peace Institute. Within the Peace Institute-headed SEENPM project on media ownership, we organized a seminar, attended by researchers from the 17 countries and the project council members, in November.
Results
Publication of the study on the media landscape in SE European states, conducted for the SEENPM by the Access Institute from Sophia. The Slovene portion of the study was conducted by Dr. Marko Milosavljević. Report on press freedom in Slovenia for the Viennese International Press Institute, included in the World Press Freedom Review for 2002 and 2003.
Effects
Projects in the field of media collaboration in SE Europe and the broader international media collaboration enable the inclusion of Slovene journalists and media experts into regional education and research programs, and encourage regional and international expert meetings and joint projects in the fields of media policy and reflections on media practices. These projects established close ties between institutions and individuals from Slovenia and other, particularly SE European, countries, who work in the fields of media and journalism. A number of joint projects (studies, research, books, etc.) are being developed and carried out.
Timetable
Jan.-Dec. Participation of Slovene journalists in the SEENPM seminars and conferences: Dejan Ljubenovič (POP TV) in Sophia; Jasna Preska (Radio Koper) in Sophia; Barbara Sloj (24ur.com) in Sophia; Vanja Tekavec (Delo) and Lea Širok (TV Koper-
127 Capodistria) in Sophia; Andrej Stopar (Radio Slovenija) in Sophia; Rina Klinar (Radio Jesenice) and Grega Repovž (Slovene Association of Journalists) in Bucarest; Polona Movrin (POP TV) in Sophia; Boštjan Videmšek (Polet) and Alenka Kotnik (TV Slovenija) in Skoplje. Jan., Oct. Participation in two sessions of the SEENPM research project committee in Budapest and Kishniev. Feb. Annual SEENPM assembly in Ljubljana. May-Dec. Selection of Borut Mekina (Večer) and Matija Grah (Delo) to participate in a study visit to The Guardian in London; carrying out of the study visit. Jun. The SEENPM TOT scheme workshop on photo-journalism, led by Meta Krese. Jul.-Dec. Initiation and presiding over the SEENPM media ownership project, spanning 17 states. Nov. Seminar, carried out under the SEENPM media ownership research project. The SEENPM TOT scheme workshop on multimedia journalism, led by Rok Kajzer. Dec. Inclusion into the international EUMAP-run research project on broadcasting media. Submission of the 2003 report on press freedom in Slovenia to IPI/SEEMO.
Brief Evaluation
Projects in the field of media collaboration in SE Europe and the broader international media collaboration enable the inclusion of Slovene journalists and media experts into regional education and research programs, and encourage regional and international expert meetings and joint projects in the fields of media policy and reflections on media practices. These projects established close ties between institutions and individuals from Slovenia and other, particularly SE European, countries, who work in the fields of media and journalism. A number of joint projects (studies, research, books, etc.) are being developed and carried out. The Piece Institute has proven itself to be a relevant partner in regional and international projects on the media and journalism. The institute and its individual associates continue to be invited to expert conferences and included into regional and international projects.
128 The Peace Institute Library
Project Head & Coordinator
Tomaž Trplan [email protected]
Project Team
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Aims and Goals
The Peace Institute library contains around 3000 fundamental works from the fields of social and political theory, conflict resolution, protection, women's studies and cultural politics, as well as a number of the most prominent international expert periodicals from these fields. Apart from domestic and foreign expert publications, the library keeps an archive of materials from conferences, lectures and round table discussions, organized by the Peace Institute in ten years of its existence, which are not available elsewhere. It also includes the library fund and the publications of the former OSI-Slovenia.
Content
/
Method
In 2003, the library started keeping regular opening hours – each workday from 12 AM to 4 PM. The SCCA Center for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana, included its materials on separate library shelves in 2003. We regularly enter our new acquisitions into the COBIB database, and inform the internal users (Peace Institute) of new materials on a monthly basis.
129 Events
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Results
In 2003, the book fund increased by approximately 300 units. An increasing number of books are being checked out, particularly by outside visitors. We release monthly bulletins on new materials for the Peace Institute associates.
Effects
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Partners
/
Timetable
In 2003, the library kept regular working hours, each workday from 12 AM to 4 PM, except during the collective leave.
Brief Evaluation
There is a substantial amount of external users, which takes its toll on the availability of the materials, often available exclusively from our library. In the next year, we will have to implement membership cards and prescribe the conditions of membership and library use. As soon as this is possible, we will automatize the check-out procedure and activate the necessary equipment (a label printer and an optical barcode reader).
130 SPECIAL PROGRAMS
131 The Peace Institute Fellowship Program 2003
Head of Project & Project Coordinators
Vlasta Jalušič; Saša Banjanac-Lubej and Franja Arlič [email protected], [email protected], franja.arlic@mirovni- institut.si
Project Team
Aldo Milohnić, Brankica Petković, Mojca Pajnik
Aims and Goals
The aim of the program was to promote strategic research of current social and political issues in Slovenia, its neighbouring regions and the EU, and thus contribute to the development of critical and alternative approaches in the process of transformation of the society and social policies. The program was primarily intended for young academics at postgraduate and postdoctoral levels; the program was not introduced as a means of funding for regular or part-time studies at any level.
Content
The fellowship research topics covered issues associated with the Peace Institute programs: Slovenia and the EU, civil society and human rights, the media. 18 candidates applied, and the committee awarded fellowships to 8 candidates, three of whom chose the theme of Slovenia and the EU, three the theme of civil society and human rights, and two chose to research the media. One of the fellows later returned the fellowship because she was awarded a scholarship to study abroad. Since she had to leave Slovenia as early as August, she would not have been able to pursue her fellowship research satisfactorily. By the end of December 2003, three fellows had submitted their final reports and three had been granted a deadline
132 extension until the end of March 2004 due to extenuating circumstances. One fellow developed a serious medical condition, so his fellowship status is frozen.
Methods
The fellowship program was introduced by the Peace Institute in 2002, when the Institute was awarded funding by the Open Society Institute in New York. The program is similar to the OSI Policy Fellows Program. The fellows’ research is done in close cooperation with the institution. Besides cooperating with program directors, fellows also work with mentors they choose themselves or with the help of the Peace Institute. In addition, fellows must produce a research plan and intermediate reports, which serve as a basis for detailed supervision and guidance by the Peace Institute.
Results
The program resulted in research reports and studies, which will be available on- line; some of them will also be published. Also, while researching, some of the fellows were active participants in a political process or in a process of advocacy of a researched (affected) group.
Effects
Specific effects and public responses are expected after the studies have been made public.
Timetable
Program scheme – February 2003 Public announcement – May 2003 Application and selection – May, June 2003 Instructions for intermediate reports and mentorship – September 2003 Instructions for final report and study – October 2003 Supervision of the final stages, analysis and evaluation of comparative studies – November 2003–April 2004
133 Brief Evaluation
The program was successful from the perspective of the institute, and also from the perspective of opening the institute to young academics, and creating opportunities for those that otherwise would not have the opportunity to do research. The scope of the program was, in accordance with last year’s findings, limited: fellowships were available to Slovene researchers only.
Funding
OSI - New York
134